Lost Memories
by This One Writer
Summary: (Post Buu Saga.) Gohan has no memory of anything that has happened prior to when he wakes up...during a game show? And as for the one girl that he thinks he might know? She claims that she has no idea who he is. Somehow, these two must get to the bottom of what's really going on and recover these lost memories. All the meanwhile, a man in a dark room concocts a malicious plan...
1. Chapter 1: Waking Up

**Welcome to Chapter 1! :) I hope you all enjoy this story! It's relatively short (9 chapters and an epilogue) and updates will be once a week on Wednesdays.**

**Some Background Info: This story is set to take place relatively soon after the Buu saga (Gohan and Videl are still teenagers). Also, it's in Gohan's POV. Enjoy!**

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Chapter 1: Waking Up

It was dark. And loud. But it wasn't chaotic noise; it was organized. One person's voice was louder than the rest and it controlled a large group of people. His voice was somewhat muffled, but if I listened hard, I probably could have figured out what he was saying. The man's loud voice wasn't my primary focus though.

I had no idea where I was or what I was doing or...anything really.

_I don't even know who I am._

I looked around the tight, dark space I was contained in and tried to figure out what I should do. I turned around and felt something behind me. It was a soft material that seemed to resemble a curtain. I could probably move it to get out of this area, but why would I do that? Wasn't there a reason I was where I was?

I think I may be hiding. I didn't know why, but that must be why I chose a small, dark area to stay in._ If only I knew more about what was going on... _

Two voices from behind the curtain interrupted my thoughts. They were loud and frustrated. I had the urge to find the edge of the soft curtain, pull it back, and leave the area, but I had a feeling that if I did that, the two voices would get very angry with me.

"It's not my fault!" one of the voices said. It belonged to a man. "All of our signals just randomly cut out too! We have the footage up until that point, so we can try and pinpoint the problem and ask everyone on the show to just do it over or something..."

"We can't just do it over!" an angry woman spat. "The girl is not an actress! These decisions are her _real_ decisions and asking her to do it again, well, that'd almost be cheating!"

The man let out some sort of huff. "Whatever. It's not like anyone watching at home would know any different. They probably think it's all staged anyway."

A noise that sounded an awful lot like a woman's heel stomping the ground was made. "I don't care if they think it's staged or not! It isn't, and that is something that this game show takes pride in!"

_A game show..._ So I must be behind the scenes of a game show! The area I was standing in must be backstage, which explained the curtain and why it was dark. I decided to listen more to the arguing man and woman discuss their technical difficulties.

"Miss, would you prefer it if I went out and stopped them in the middle of the show?" the man proposed.

She sighed. "No. Something tells me that interrupting the show would just make her father pretty upset. I think he's actually in the audience right now. Let's...just call him later and say that we lost the footage, which isn't entirely a lie. I'd rather not break that news to him in person." She made an audible gulp. "I might not make it out alive. I've heard he's pretty scary when he's mad..."

"So you would like us to continue and pretend that nothing is wrong, but call Mr. Satan later and let him know that we lost the footage of his daughter on our game show?" the man asked in clarification.

"Correct," the woman confirmed. Their voices hushed more as they walked away from the area behind the curtain where I was eavesdropping on them.

_Mr. Satan... _That name definitely rang a bell. It couldn't belong to me because they said the man was in the audience, and clearly I wasn't. He also had a daughter who was starring on this game show today. _Do I know her too?_ I felt another, even stronger buzz of familiarity. I think I did know her, but I wasn't sure why.

Now that I had a little bit more of an idea of what was going on around me, I tried to listen more to the man's somewhat muffled voice that I heard in the beginning. Knowing that I possibly had a connection with the star of today's show gave me more of a reason to try to pick apart his muffled words.

"You've done well so far, Miss Satan!" It became clear to me that the owner of this voice must be the game show's host. "I am pleased to say that it is time to open up our first door!"

_Oh no! _I thought. _They're already opening up doors. Isn't that what comes near the end of most game shows?_ I was starting to regret my choice of listening to the two people argue instead of listening to the show that was going on. Sighing, I reassured myself that I still got valuable information from listening to the arguers.

"Hmm..." Miss Satan verbally contemplated her choice. "I think I want to go with door one."

Her melodic voice sent chills down my spine. I _definitely_ had a strong connection to her, but I wasn't sure how. I mentally made it a goal to talk to this girl after the show was over. She might have some answers about who I was or what I was doing here or anything else.

"What is behind...door number one?!" the host exclaimed enthusiastically.

The sound of a door creaking reverberated to the area I was standing at. It sounded more like a sound effect than a real door noise, so I guessed that the people in control of the sounds and opening the doors weren't having technical difficulties. _Plus the microphones are working,_ I thought stupidly.

"What do you know?!" the host cheered. "A free vacation to one of three tropical islands of your choice! That seems like a wonderful prize!"

Mr. Satan's daughter made a sound of disappointment. "That's not what I was hoping for though. I want a car, and you told me that behind one of these doors, there is definitely a car!"

The host-man laughed. "I did mention that, didn't I? How about you answer me something, and we might be able to make a deal. Why do you, the great Videl Satan, need a car from a game show?"

_Videl... _Her name whispered in the back of my mind and my temples began to ache a little. Mr. Satan's daughter. _What is my connection to her? _I needed to find out. She had to have the answer to everything that was happening. But first, I needed to stay in hiding until the show was over. I also needed to relax and not let this strange headache get the best of me.

"My father refuses to buy me a car of my own even though we can easily afford it," she answered the host's question. "Receiving a car from a game show might just be my only chance of getting one."

"Aww..." the host sympathized with her. "I can't help but feel bad for you, especially with such a pretty, yet sad, face. Tell you what, for today only, we will make a deal for the daughter of the great Martial Arts Champion, Mr. Satan!"

_Martial Arts Champion... _He must be really strong. Did I know of him because he was famous? Have I ever even met him? And does that mean that I don't even really know his daughter? But something in my mind was urging me that I did know her. My temples started hurting a little more as I kept thinking about it too.

"Here is what we can do!" the host continued. "We will allow you to open one more door, and you get to keep the prize behind it, increasing your chances of getting a car!"

"Really?!" she exclaimed, piping up. "Umm... I don't know which to choose..."

The audience began to get excited and rowdy. They started screaming at her to choose door two or three. The host even tried to calm them down a little bit, but it was no use for this loud bunch of people.

Videl finally spoke up again. "Okay. I made my decision." The audience silenced. "My gut keeps telling me door two...but something else is telling me door three."

"It was me!" some random guy, probably in the audience, shouted. His obnoxious exclaimation caused everyone in the studio to laugh.

"So is door three your final decision?" the host asked with eagerness. She must have nodded because she said nothing else to correct him. "Okay! Before we open it, I would like to once again explain that there is nothing wrong with any of these prizes, but Videl simply would prefer a car above all else!"

There was a momentary pause, and I began to wonder if something else went wrong. I figured it must have been for dramatic effect because the host soon spoke up again. "Open up...door three!"

Out of nowhere, the wall in front of me swung open like a doo- _Oh no!_

The bright studio lights shone in my eyes, which were accustomed to the dark. Because of the lighting, my face squinted and scrunched probably in a way that almost perfectly resembled the look of absolute disgust on the face of the young woman who was standing in front of me.

"That's not a car!" the fiery young lady exclaimed. _She must be Videl!_

The host, a man with shiny black hair and wrinkles that were attempted at being covered up with makeup, chuckled at her comment. "You're right! That is definitely not a car! Instead, you have won the perfect boyfriend! Guaranteed for at least one date!"

The studio cheered and Videl stared at me with pure horror and rage. Then it finally hit me. _I am the perfect boyfriend that she won._ But at least that meant I was definitely going to get the chance to talk to her later.

"Thank you for being our special guest star today!" the host concluded. "Viewers at home, join us next week for more exciting action!"

"And that's a wrap!" a short, tubby lady said, stepping out from somewhere near me. I recognized her voice to match the one of the angry woman from earlier.

The crews began to clean up and the audience began to stand and talk loudly to each other. The large lady walked over to Videl and gestured for me to follow. "You did a great job today, Videl. I'm sorry that you didn't get your car, but this young man will be the perfect boyfriend, I'm sure."

The woman got a better look at me. "Are you alright, boy? You look like a deer in the headlights!" She squinted her eyes as she examined me some more. "Are you really the man we put behind door three? I don't remember him being so...awkward."

I gave an awkward laugh, thus proving her point more, but tried to act as natural as possible. "Oh, um, I was just taken by surprise when they opened another door! I didn't expect to get picked today!"

Miss Boss-Lady kept her eyes narrowed. "You are really the man we chose to be the perfect boyfriend?"

Even though I had no recollection of who I was or how I got here, something told me that I probably wasn't supposed to be behind door three. "Yes ma'am! I am the perfect boyfriend! One hundred percent!" I wasn't even sure why I was lying, other than I needed to in order to talk to Videl.

The lady rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Anyway, this wasn't recorded for live TV, so it will be a little while before it airs. It shouldn't take too long, but we'll give you a call when it'll be broadcasted on television."

I recalled her having a fit earlier and saying she would simply call Mr. Satan later and tell him about the "bad news." She must have held this conversation to prepare for that time in the near future. She strolled away and continued to boss around some of the crews as if nothing were wrong.

"So...Videl," I awkwardly stated. How exactly should I say everything that I had on my mind?

"I'm not in the mood, _boyfriend_," she said sourly.

She began to walk away, but I caught her arm. "Wait! You don't understand...or maybe I don't understand. I'm not really sure what-"

Videl escaped my grasp. "You're right. You don't understand. This show was my one chance at getting a car, and thanks to you, I can't get one!"

The longer I stood next to her, the more talking to her seemed like a bad idea. "No. You have to listen to me! I have absolutely no idea what's going on. I have no memories of anything whatsoever. I just woke up in that dark space and found out that I was on some game show!"

She shrugged. "You know what that sounds like? Not my problem. And I don't understand why you're telling _me_ any of this. Go complain to your manager or something!"

I rubbed the back of my neck and laughed lightly. "That would be nice and all, but I'm pretty sure I'm not exactly supposed to be here or be your perfect boyfriend!" I cleared my throat and became serious once again. "The only thing that I know for a fact is that I somehow have some sort of connection to you."

"_You_ have a connection to _me_?" she questioned. "And you're not even supposed to be here?"

"I don't know how to explain it, but whenever I heard your name, something burned in the back of my mind, and I realized that somehow I know you. I was hoping that I could talk to you and you might have some answers for me."

"Answers? That depends on what the questions are..."

"Who am I?"

I watched as she visibly nearly fell over. "YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU ARE?!"

I frantically looked around the room, grateful for all the loud background noise. "Shhh! Not so loud! I don't want to draw attention to it! Anyway, do you know who I am?"

She stared at me blankly in the face. "I have no idea who you are. In fact, although I will admit that your face looks familiar, I don't think we have ever even met before... Maybe you just have one of those faces. Sorry!"

My heart rate rocketed, and I could feel it beating through my whole body. That couldn't be right. I was so certain that she could answer all of my questions. And deep down I still knew that no matter what she said, I did somehow have a connection to her.

"Look," she said in a softer tone. "I'm sorry that I couldn't help you out, but I'm sure there's someone else out there who can. We've both had a disappointing day, and I think it would be best if we both just went home and took it easy for a little while."

I was shocked. "But-"

"And I guess we don't need to worry about that 'guaranteed date', right?" She offered a small smile. "You seem pretty stressed, and I get that you don't want to be the 'perfect boyfriend.'"

She tried to walk away again, but I grabbed her arm and stopped her once more, feeling very desperate. "Please. You can't leave me. I don't know who I am or where to go or what to do! I have nothing, so you have to help me just this once! Although you may not exactly feel it the same way I do, you are my only connection to my past."

I watched something falter on her face, but she shook her head. "I'm sorry, Mystery Man, but I told you all that I know, which is nothing! What more do you expect me to do?"

I stared down at my shoes, which were apparently black. "I- I don't know. I was just hoping that somehow you would be the answer to everything I don't know."

When I glanced back up at her, she was scrunching her face up and shaking her head some more. "Fine. You win."

"I win?" I questioned warily. "What do I win?"

Videl pointed a finger at me and placed her other hand on her hip. "You win my pity. I think that I...I somewhat believe you and all this crazy talk about you losing your memory or whatever." She let out a sigh. "You can ride with me in the limousine until I drop you off at a hospital where we can get someone to check you out and help you for real."

"Really?" I asked with uncertainty. "Even if you couldn't answer my questions, you are still a huge help! Thank you! Thank you so much!"

She began to harden herself again. "Yeah, sure. No need to make a big deal out of it, okay? I'm still upset about not getting that car I wanted, so you're lucky I'm even doing this."

Videl gestured for me to follow her, and we walked out of the building together and went to her limousine. A man opened the door for her to get in, and widened his eyes when I followed her into the vehicle. "Are you taking him...home with you?"

"That'd be funny," she said sarcastically. "No. We're taking him to the nearest hospital."

"But Miss-"

"Just do what I say, okay? Or...I can let my daddy know that you aren't doing your job." She had such authority, I couldn't help but be a little bit in awe.

She kept a seat in between us and directed her attention to either the window or the back of the seat. I couldn't help but stare at her though, and as I did so, I would notice that she would occasionally steal a few quick glances at me too.

I wasn't sure what to say, but I felt that I should say something to break the awkward silence. "So...you have your own limo, even separate from your father's, but you still want your own car?"

"Shut up," she spat without looking at me. I stared at her blankly. "And would you quit staring at me?! It's making me uncomfortable..."

"I'm sorry," I muttered, but didn't shift my gaze.

She looked over at me with regret in her eyes. "It's weird enough that I have to give you, some random stranger, a ride in my limo to the hospital."

I flashed her a big, awkward grin. "Yeah, but it's less weird than going on a date with some random stranger, right?"

I could tell that she was still trying to appear annoyed by having to take me with her, but she actually did crack a smile. "I hope you know that this was not how I was planning on having my day go."

"How were you planning on having it go?" I asked out of curiosity.

Videl's eyes lit up as she spoke. "I would be driving my new wheels around, cruising through the city, not a single care on my mind." Her expression dimmed. "But instead I got stuck with you."

"I did kind of screw things up a little bit, didn't I?" I tried to keep it pretty light hearted after all of my craziness that I shared with her. "But now we get to go on an adventure, right?"

"We're just going to the hospital," she said, ignoring the humor behind my words. "There will be no adventure."

**...**

_**(Somewhere else, in a dark room)**_

"Sir, he escaped."

"Escaped?! How long ago?"

"Um, about half of our systems went down maybe around...fifteen minutes ago."

"How could he escape? We have the best defense system around here and the room was being well guarded!"

"It appears that he attacked both the guards and our defense systems."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well...all of the nearby guards are knocked out and our defenses are blown to bits."

"Fine. We'll let him have his fun for now, but we'll get him soon. Just you watch."

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**So there you have it folks! Chapter 1! Thanks for reading! Feel free to review or follow or favorite (or all of the above)! It'd be very appreciated! ;)**

**-TOW**


	2. Chapter 2: Gaining (Some) Trust

**Thank you for continuing to read this story! :D I hope you enjoy chapter 2!**

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Chapter 2: Gaining (Some) Trust

We soon made it to a hospital where I was being dropped off at. The chauffeur-man opened the door, and I slowly began to crawl out of the limo. Before I was fully out of the vehicle, I looked back at Videl, who hadn't moved a bit.

"You're not even going to walk me in?" I asked her.

She furrowed her brows. "Why would I? You're a big boy. You can take care of yourself."

"Well, it's just that I'm a little disoriented, and I don't exactly know...anything. I was kind of hoping that you would at least walk me in. That's all!"

Videl rolled her eyes and scooted toward me. I fully stepped out of the limo, and she followed. Before we walked in, she turned to the chauffeur and said, "Wait for me here, Jeff. This should only take a second."

I let her take the lead and followed her closely behind into the building. We walked down the hallway until we found the receptionist desk where I could get checked in. A woman in her early thirties sat at the desk in front of a computer.

"Hello," she greeted us friendly. "Oh! You're Videl Satan! I can't believe it! My daughter's a big fan. She wants to be just like you when she grows up! I'm sorry, I should just get you the clipboard with all the paper work."

She handed a wooden clipboard over to Videl when she noticed me. "I see you've brought a young man along too. Is he your boyfriend?"

"Yes," she answered curtly, taking the clipboard from the receptionist. Then Videl handed the clipboard over to me and gestured for me to go sit down in one of the chairs in the waiting room.

I smiled at her shyly. "Do you think you can wait with me too? It shouldn't take too long, and I don't want to be all alone..."

After meeting my eyes, she let out a quick puff of air and crossed her arms. "Fine. I can wait with you until they call you in for your examination, okay? Just as long as you promise to quit using those darn puppy dog eyes..."

"You told that lady that I was your boyfriend," I said as I took a seat in one of the chairs.

Videl rolled her eyes. "Don't get too excited. I just thought it would make things easier and go quicker. I didn't want to have to give some useless explanation."

"And that lady, she said something about her daughter being a fan of yours. Are you famous?" I asked without trying to show any disrespect.

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess. I'm a fighter, just like my dad, but I haven't come anywhere near close to his level of expertise."

"I think I knew that you're a fighter," I commented.

Videl gave me a strange look. "It's not like that's top secret information. A lot of people know who I am and what I do, so you haven't exactly persuaded me yet that you really 'know who I am.'"

"What's something that a lot of people might not know then?" I asked slowly.

She smirked. "How about I ask you? What is my favorite color?"

A word tugged in the back of my mind. I decided that maybe I should say that word. "Chartreuse."

Videl's jaw dropped. "How did you- You're right. It's chartreuse, but how-"

"I'm not really sure," I told her with honesty. "It was just kind of there in the back of my mind. The same place that I get this weird feeling that I know you somehow. But to be honest, I don't really know what color chartreuse even is!"

She slowly reached down inside of her shirt, and I felt my face heat up a little. "Videl! What are you doing?!"

"Relax," she told me as she pulled out a silver-chained necklace. "I don't usually like to show it off to people, but this necklace is from my mother. She died when I was a little girl."

"Oh."

"But this color is chartreuse." She pointed to a greenish-yellow flower attached to the chain.

"Oh." I examined her necklace some more. "It's kind of an ugly color to be honest..."

After how tense I had seen her earlier, I prepared myself for an outburst and lecture about why chartreuse was not an ugly color. Instead, Videl just laughed. And she laughed pretty loudly too, but to me it sounded a little forced, as if she were suppressing some sort of painful memory. "Yeah, I guess you could say that it is pretty ugly."

Once she stopped laughing, we had a brief moment of awkward eye contact. I cleared my throat. "So, um, I need to fill out this thing." I gestured down at my clipboard.

"Right," she agreed.

"But I don't exactly know any of this information."

"What is it asking for?"

"My, uh, name...and some other stuff."

Videl stared at me blankly for a moment. "You don't know your name, but you know that my favorite color is chartreuse?"

"I guess so," I stated as I looked down at the clipboard. Slowly, I looked back up at her to meet her eyes.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "And you swear that it wasn't just some random guess?"

"I swear it," I answered. "I heard it in the back of my mind. I knew it before. I promise you. Just like how I knew you before today too. I can't explain it, but you have to trust me."

Videl's eyes looked up at the ceiling. "Call me crazy, but I guess I do. I really have no reason to either. " She sighed and looked back toward me. "I must be losing my mind. Come on, Mystery Man. I think it's pretty clear that this isn't going to work."

"What?" I questioned. "Are you talking about-"

She stood up and gestured wildly for me to do the same. I struggled to get to my feet, but somehow I slowly managed to stand up. She rolled her eyes once again, and grabbed my hand. I tried to control my blush, but I couldn't help it. She dragged me along as we darted over to the receptionist.

Videl handed my clipboard over to the lady and continued to drag me along. We ran down the hallway together until we reached the limousine outside. The chauffeur opened the door for her once again and looked at me hesitantly.

"Miss Satan, are you sure that you want him to come along? I thought that we were only dropping him off." I got the impression that the chauffeur-man didn't like me very much.

"I changed my mind about leaving him alone, okay? If you have a problem with that feel free to take it up with my father," she explained with a threatening tone.

The man swallowed nervously. "No ma'am. No problem. Everything is perfectly fine. Where to now?"

"Take us home," she demanded.

We arrived at Videl's house fairly quickly. The place was huge! Several stories high, it made me feel like an ant. When we walked inside, I was not surprised to find that the interior was just as classy as the exterior. I wasn't sure how anyone could navigate their way through this house! I felt like I needed a map.

"Follow me," Videl said, walking through the grand entryway and down some careening halls. "I hope you don't mind eating here tonight. It's almost dinner time, so I figured that you might want to eat too. I promise that our chef is one of the best in the business."

"Oh wow!" I said, sniffing the air. "It smells delicious!"

As if on cue, my stomach let out a small grumbling noise. I looked away out of embarrassment, but Videl just smiled and told me that I should go meet the cook. So we walked in the kitchen together and found a tall, slim man yelling at a petite lady in another language.

The man yelled something apparently very brutal because the small woman burst into tears. He then shooed her out of the kitchen with a few last words, most of which I'm assuming were not very nice.

Videl cleared her throat to get the man's attention. "Chef! We, um, have a visitor for tonight."

Chef looked away and blushed slightly. "I'm sorry, Miss. I let my temper get the best of me. That maid was helping me out in the kitchen today, and she dropped one of the glasses and broke it."

She shrugged it off. "Don't worry about it. We have plenty of other glasses to use. Are the broken shards picked up though?"

He nodded quickly. "Yes. I had the maid clean up the mess that she made."

"Good," Videl said. "Now as I was saying, we have a visitor for the night. He will be joining us for dinner, and I was telling him that your dishes are delicious!"

"They are!" Chef exclaimed, nodding enthusiastically. "I always make all the meals one hundred percent in this kitchen, so you can only expect the best!"

"Well, I'm starving and it smells great!" I said with a laugh.

Chef smiled at my compliment. "Just wait until you have eaten it! Speaking of which, the food is almost ready. There are just a few minutes left. Would the lovely couple like to have a seat in the dining room?"

"We're not a couple," Videl explained as we walked out one of the doors that let into the dining area.

Just as we entered the room from one area, an older gentleman came in from another door. He greeted both of us politely. I was pretty sure he was a butler so, not knowing the proper way to greet a butler, I waved at him.

"Good evening, Patrick. Is something wrong?" Videl asked.

"No ma'am," the butler answered. "Nothing's wrong. Your father, however, did just call and said to let you know that he will not be joining you for supper tonight. He said he has another business dinner."

Patrick bowed his head and left the room just as Videl rolled her eyes and sighed. "Great. A 'business dinner' again."

"You don't sound so excited about that," I commented as I noticed her reaction.

She took a seat at the table and, unsure of what else to do, I just took the other seat across from her. "A 'business dinner' is my dad's code for 'date'. He's been going on a lot of those lately, and I'm getting a little bit annoyed by it. On the bright side, it means that we have an empty spot at the table for you to sit at."

I wasn't sure what to say next. "Thank you for letting me eat at your house tonight. Without you, I would have no idea where to go."

Videl shrugged her shoulders as if it were no big deal. "Whatever. It's nothing really. It means I won't be eating by myself again tonight."

"Your dinner is served," the chef said as he walked in with a tray. "I didn't know that we would be having a guest tonight otherwise I would have made something more grand, but I do hope that you'll enjoy my-"

"Oh yes!" I exclaimed, grabbing my bowl of whatever with great vigor. Immediately after, I started slurping it down and enjoying its savoriness until there was no more. Videl and the butler stared at me with widened eyes. She hadn't even gotten her soup stuff yet.

"Can I have another?" I asked. "It was great!"

The chef blinked twice and looked over at Videl. "Your friend has quite the appetite! But I'll be sure to come right back with seconds!" He began to exit the room, but swiftly spun around before he had left. "I almost forgot! Here is yours, Miss Satan!"

After the chef dropped off the food, and as I waited for him to come back with seconds, I attempted small talk with Videl. "So I was a little worried about your chef when I saw him yell at that maid, but I changed my mind! This has been great!"

She held her spoon in a firm grip, but made no move to even eat anything. "You do realize you ate that in, like, three seconds..."

I analyzed the confusion on her face. "Is- Is that bad?"

"I don't know. I've just never seen anyone eat something that quickly," she said, still a little bit in shock.

I shrugged, and the chef came in with seconds. He smiled at me as he set the bowl down, but I could tell he was a little annoyed with my appetite. "I filled it almost to the brim so that you'll surely have more time to enjoy it. I made sure that it also-"

"Done!" I exclaimed. "Can I have another? And maybe another after that? And maybe-"

Chef stared at me long and hard as he interrupted me with somewhat sarcastic words. "I'm sorry. I only prepared a meal for Miss Satan and her father, not Miss Satan and a herd of elephants. I might have enough for two more rounds, but after that, I doubt it."

I locked eyes with Videl. "Oh, um, do you want any more? Or-"

"No. Help yourself," she said, still not touching her food.

"Great!" I exclaimed. "Well, in that case, just bring out the rest!"

Chef grabbed my bowl and left the room as he shook his head. Soon enough, he entered and placed two full bowls of soup in front of me. I gobbled them up without any hesitation too. I respectfully waited on Videl to finish her meal and decided not to ask for any more even though I was still hungry.

"You eat kind of slow," I commented as she carefully dished out her soup, one spoonful at a time.

After swallowing, she commented, "No. You just eat ridiculously fast. And a lot."

I laughed a little. "You should see my dad eat!"

Videl's spoon suddenly thudded on the table. "Wait. Did you-" She stopped short.

I blinked. "Did I what?"

"Your dad!" she cheered, excitedly. "You just mentioned your dad! Does this mean you remember him?!"

After a second, I realized that I _did_ mention my dad. I furrowed my brows and closed my eyes. _Why did I say that? Why would I mention my dad? Who even is my dad?_ I opened my eyes and stared down at the table. I had no recollection of my father whatsoever, but for some reason saying that flowed so naturally out of my mouth.

I looked back up and met Videl's eyes. "I don't remember my dad, but for some reason I was prompted to make that statement."

The excitement visibly drained out of her face. "Oh. Well, I thought- Maybe-" She slurped another spoonful. "I'm full. Let's go figure out what to do with you now."

Following her lead, I stood up from the table and left the dining room. We walked down one of the halls to an area with a staircase and climbed up the stairs. We walked down yet another hallway until she stopped in front of a door.

"This is my room," Videl told me. "Immediately to your right is one of our guest rooms. I guess you can stay here. But only for tonight!"

"Thank you," I said softly. I stared at her momentarily as I waited for some more directions.

"Um, yeah," she said. "Don't mention it. Normally I would tell you to go unpack, but since you don't have anything...I guess you can just chill out until you're ready for bed."

I nodded slowly. "Is your father going to mind me staying here for the night?"

Videl shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I doubt he'll even notice, but if he does, he probably won't care. On the off chance that he does care, good luck. He's the World Martial Arts Champion, and he doesn't take that title lightly."

We stood in the hallway awkwardly, neither of us sure what to do next. I cleared my throat and spoke up first. "Even though I don't have anything to unpack, I think I'll go look at my room."

"I'll come with you," she offered. At first, I raised an eyebrow, but then I shrugged. I didn't have a problem with her tagging along.

I entered the guest room that I would be sleeping in and was once again taken aback at how large everything was. There was a bed, a TV, a closet, some shelves, a large mirror, and plenty of open space. There was even a door that led to a balcony outside!

Videl noticed me staring at the balcony. "You can go out there, you know."

Listening to what she said, I strolled over to the door and opened it. I enjoyed the fresh air I was now offered. In the background, there were mountains, and the sun was setting in the distance. It was a spectacular view really.

She casually walked over to the railing and placed her arms on top of it. I did just as she did. Neither of us said a word for quite some time as we were both enjoying the peaceful, beautiful setting of the sun. I stole a glance at Videl and couldn't help but notice how pretty she was, especially in this lighting.

"My mother was an artist," she said, continuing to stare into the distance.

I looked back at the mountains. "Really? Was she good?"

She looked over at me and nodded. "She was extraordinary. Before my dad became really rich and famous, she would sell her paintings to help us make a living. She loved to paint landscapes and gorgeous sunsets, just like tonight's sky."

"Can I see one of her paintings?" I asked, perhaps a little too eagerly.

I was shocked when Videl shook her head. "You can't."

"But why not?"

"She always sold them all and left nothing for us. Then she died."

Great. It was this awkward subject again. It's probably really easy to make her uncomfortable when she's talking about her dead mother, so I shouldn't say anything stupid...

"How'd she die?" _Well, there goes not saying anything stupid._

Videl didn't say anything. Just as I thought she might have been warming up to me, I went and screwed it all up. I wasn't sure if I should apologize or just let the question eerily hang in the air unanswered. Someone had to speak up soon though, or the silence was going to get even more uncomfortable.

She reached down her shirt and pulled out her necklace again. "My mom actually was the one who painted this flower."

"Oh," was all I said this time. I guess it was better than another stupid question.

She let out a long and loud sigh. "When I was eight years old, my mother was killed in a drunk driving accident. It's as simple as that. I loved her very much, and I still miss her. It just isn't fair! It wasn't her fault! She did nothing wrong, yet a stupid drunk driver hit her!"

I didn't realize that she was softly crying until I looked over at her again. She wiped her tears and took a moment to pause. "So even though chartreuse is an ugly color, and I agree that it's an ugly color too, it's still my favorite. It reminds me of my mom."

Her dramatic story was over, and I did what I thought was necessary. I gave her a big hug. It helped that she smelled really nice too, which I honestly wasn't expecting because she was a fighter, but who was I kidding? Girls always smell nice!

I dropped my arms, but she still held on to me tightly. After a few more moments, she backed away, and I could see a faint glow of red brushing her cheeks. She smiled at me, and I could tell she was still a little embarrassed.

"I don't know why I told you that," she said softly. "I don't usually tell anyone that, but today I've told a complete stranger."

"Well, I did kind of ask."

"I know, but that doesn't mean I had to answer."

"To be honest, I was pretty sure you weren't going to either."

Videl shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I did. And now I've made a complete fool out of myself by crying like a little baby too. Anyway, that's the story of my mom. Some random mystery man knows my saddest memory. But the more that I think about it, I feel like I maybe have seen your face before. I guess that means I can trust you."

I smiled and felt myself grow warm. "I'm glad you do because I trust you too. I trusted you from the very first instance I heard your name. Somehow, I know you."

She made a face. "I don't get it. You keep saying that you know me and stuff, but I don't understand how. I'll admit that your face looks familiar, as if I've seen it in a picture somewhere, but I'm almost positive we haven't met."

It was getting dark and a little chilly, so I shivered in the wind. "I've said it a million times, but I just can't explain it. I think- I think I might know you from school or something." My temples ached as I tried to reach for a memory that wasn't there.

Videl suddenly straightened where she stood. "Impossible! If you went to my school, I definitely would have recognized you!"

"Really?" I asked, trying to ignore the pain in my head. "Is it a small school or something?"

She bit her lip. "Well...not exactly. But I know I would remember someone as...someone like...someone-" She stopped and started over. "I probably would have known if you went to my school because I would have seen you in the hallway or something."

"Yeah," I agreed. "You probably would recognize me. But in that same place in my mind that always prompts the few memories and things that I can remember, I was prompted to say that!"

Videl sat down on the wooden balcony floor, and I looked at the way her hair shimmered in the moonlight. "What things can you remember anyway, Mystery Man? Tell me everything that you know. About your life, I mean."

I sat down, closed my eyes, and tried to pull out my memories from that one spot in my mind, but it caused my temples to ache some more when I thought about it on my own. "Well, I woke up in a squished, dark space. It turned out that I was behind door three, but at first I had no idea where I was. Then two people started arguing behind me. There was some sort of technical difficulty that caused the show's filming to stop or something."

"What?!" she exclaimed, interrupting my story.

"Oh yeah," I told her. "So...that happened. The woman said she didn't want to deal with your father at the moment, so she was just going to call him and tell him they lost the footage later. Be prepared for that fun phone call.

"Anyway, I then heard the host guy talk to you, and I knew that I recognized your voice. At one point he said your name, and I recognized it too. I had no idea what was going on, other than I thought I was backstage during a game show, but I knew I had a strong connection to you, and I was determined to speak with you at all costs. I had to wait until after the show was over, of course, and for some reason I suspected that I was hiding. Once the show was over, I tried to get answers from you, but you had none."

She looked me dead in the eyes. "And that's it? That's everything that happened? What about from before that? What from your life prior to the show do you remember?"

I looked down at my empty hands. Empty like most of my memories of life before a few hours ago. "I don't know much. I have some sort of connection to you. I thought it was school, but you don't think so. I know that your favorite color is chartreuse. I know that you're a fighter like your dad. I know that my dad eats a lot. I don't know who my dad is or what he looks like. I don't know anything else, actually."

"This is so bizarre," Videl commented. "I thought my day was going pretty rough, but you reminded me that life can suck even more. I was just upset that I couldn't get a car, but you don't know anything about your very own life. You don't even know your name!"

"Do you think I'll ever be able to gain my memories back?" I asked her, wanting an honest opinion.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. But if you do happen to remember anything else, let me know of it immediately. You can trust me. I may not know you like you claim to know me, but I do feel somewhat inclined to help, and I will do just that. I am determined to help you find your lost memories."

**...**

**_(Once again...Somewhere else, in a dark room)_**

"It's been a while, sir."

"And?"

"And you've given no orders to search for him yet!"

"I wanted to see if he would manage to make his way back here on his own. It's clear that that will not be happening."

"Would you like us to put up the posters again?"

"Those old things? From the first time? Ehh...I'd rather not deal with it."

"So what would you like us to do?"

"For now? Nothing. It's getting late, don't you think? I'll just deal with it tomorrow."

* * *

**There you have it! Chapter two! Thanks for reading! And thanks in advance for following/favoriting/reviewing! ;)**

**-TOW**


	3. Chapter 3: Conflicting Information

**All questions will be answered in due time! ;) Thanks to everyone who's been reading the story so far! You warm my heart! :D**

* * *

Chapter 3: Conflicting Information

"Hey! Hey!" someone shouted as the door to my bedroom burst open. "Hey! Wake up!"

I groggily sat up in my bed and tried to make out who the person standing before me was. "Who is it? And what do you want?"

"It's Videl. Who else could it be?" she asked.

I shrugged and realized that she probably didn't see my gesture because the light was turned off. "I don't know, a maid maybe?"

She turned on the light, and my eyes burned temporarily. "Well, I'm not a maid. I had to wake you up because I have some exciting news!"

I rolled my head over to the clock. "It's practically three in the morning. Can't it just wait until tomorrow?"

Videl roiled her eyes. "Technically it is tomorrow...but this is something that you might want to hear now!"

Ever so slowly, I took in a deep breath and let it out. As I did so, I noticed how unkempt Videl looked. Her hair was a tangled mess, as if she had just tossed and turned all night instead of sleeping. Her eyes held a crazed look in them. She wore running shorts and a tank top. Something told me that she was up all night thinking about whatever "news" she was about to tell me.

And then drank a gallon of coffee to get all hyped up.

"So what do you want to tell me that can't wait until I'm fully rested?" I asked, slightly annoyed.

She grinned in a manner that made her look a little insane. "I remember something!"

I furrowed my brows. "Isn't that my job?"

Videl laughed lightly, still with that crazed look in her eyes. "Yes, but I remember something about you that might wake up some more of your memories! And then you can finally leave my house!"

"Then would you quit acting like a crazy person and just tell me?!" I begged, ready to fall back asleep.

"So, do you remember when I said that you looked a little familiar?"

"Somewhat..."

"Well, I did! Anyway, I kept trying to think about where I had seen your face from, and I remember now!"

"JUST TELL ME ALREADY!" I screamed, letting my impatience get the best of me.

Videl jumped back, a little taken aback by my sudden outburst, but she soon planted herself firmly on the ground again. She was now slipping back more into her normal self. "You are a wanted criminal."

"I'm a _what_?!" I exclaimed. "That can't be right! I'm sure I'm a good person!"

She smirked a little, and I noticed an even greater change in her behavior. She was finally calming down from her lack of sleep or whatever. "Or at least...you were. I think you were eventually turned in and they worked it out or something. In any case, I don't see any wanted posters anymore."

"I'm supposedly a criminal, and you're just letting me stay in your house?" I asked her, jumping out of my bed. "Does that not freak you out?!"

She shrugged, and I realized she was fully back to her typical nonchalance instead of that crazy woman that invaded my room earlier. "Not really. You don't remember anything, and you seem like a nice guy, so I'm pretty sure you're not a threat. It's only for the one night anyway."

I was speechless. All this time trying to figure out who I was, and I was a criminal?! I wasn't sure what to say, so I began to pace around the room. Videl, however, looked very uncomfortable, and I stopped once I realized that she was staring at me.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, half-expecting her to freak out because it had finally sunk in that she was housing a former criminal.

Her face flushed a little. "It's just- You're not wearing- You're in your underwear!"

I looked down at my body. Earlier I had been wearing long pants and a long-sleeve shirt, but I took them off when I went to bed. Now all I was wearing was a white undershirt and navy boxers.

Shrugging, I looked back over to her. "It's fine. I mean, I'm not naked or anything."

Videl's long night of staying up must have finally began to hit her hard because she yawned and rubbed one of her eyes. "Yeah... You're right. Well, I'm gonna go to bed. I'll see you in the morning, but then I expect you to leave. Tell me if you remember anymore then."

She left my room, and I turned off the night and went back to my bed. I stared at the ceiling. _I was hoping she knew something about me, but I didn't expect it to be that I was once a wanted criminal!_ I wondered what I did that caused me to be wanted. I also wondered if any new memories would stir from this. None have so far. I only got this weird feeling that something wasn't right. Maybe Videl was mistaken.

I didn't realize I had actually fallen asleep until I woke up. It was 9 am. I quickly got dressed and decided to confront Videl about her new information. When I walked over to her bedroom, she wasn't there. I went down the stairs and fortunately bumped into Patrick, the butler, along the way.

"Do you know where Videl is?" I asked.

"I believe she may have gone to her training room," he answered.

I stared at him blankly. "And where is that?"

Patrick gave a friendly smile. "Let me just show you. Follow me."

I followed him down the stairs and through an open living space to a long hallway with a few doors. Around a corner and near the end of the hallway, there was a door that had a sign reading, "DO NOT DISTURB!" Patrick told me that this was her training room and then he left.

I took a deep breath in and out. She probably was not going to appreciate my coming in. I knocked lightly on the door before slowly opening it. When I looked around inside, I saw a large space filled with punching bags, boxing gloves, treadmills, and all sorts of other exercise equipment.

"Wow," I said as I continued to look around the large room.

In one corner, a familiar looking lady with black hair punched one of the punching bags. She wore the same black running shorts and purple tank top from last night, but her hair was now done up in a messy ponytail. She dripped with sweat and breathed heavily, but continued to punch the bag.

"Did you not read the sign?" she asked as she continued to beat on it. "I'm kind of busy right now!"

I slowly stepped toward her. "Well, I did see it, but I thought you might want to talk to me."

"Ha!" she yelled as she threw a large punch. She spun around on her heels. "What I want to do is train, but I guess I can spare a few moments and talk to you."

I didn't beat around the bush. "I don't think you're right about me being a criminal."

Videl strolled over to one of the benches and sat down. I followed her and picked up her towel off the bench and handed it to her before I sat down too. She thanked me and began to wipe off some sweat but said nothing else.

Getting tired of waiting for her to say smething, I spoke up. "Are you positive it was me you saw on those wanted posters?"

She stopped wiping her face and held the towel in her lap. "Well, I mean, the guy in the picture looked like you! I can't be certain though because I don't have the poster with me. I actually did have one of them, but when I looked for it I couldn't find it..."

"Why did you have a wanted poster of me?" I asked her with great curiosity.

Videl looked down at her shoes and her cheeks began to redden a bit. "Because I have this friend who saw the poster and thought you were cute, so I took one down, but I never gave it to her..."

It was hard to tell if she was lying or not, but I went with it anyway. "You couldn't give it to her because you lost it?"

"Um, yeah," she answered. "But if I find it, I can show you that it _is_ you! The guy on it looks exactly like you! Except maybe the hair...but it's a fairly old poster! You could have changed your hairstyle! It's either you, or you have a twin brother."

Somwthing stirred in the back of my mind. "I know for a fact that I do not have a twin! But I also know that I am not a criminal..."

"Maybe not anymore," she told me. "You were turned in. So...maybe you changed!"

"No!" I exclaimed, racking my brain for memories. My temples began to hurt. "I was never a criminal! Because..." I closed my eyes and furrowed my brows. "I remember something about someone protecting the city. It's really clouded, but I think it was me...and you. Both of us!"

"What?" Videl stood up and gave me an accusatory glare. "This is crazy talk..._once again!_ First you think that you go to my school, and now you think we protect the city together?! There are several reasons why that's ridiculous!"

My temples were burning, and it felt like my brain was on fire. "Why is it so ridiculous?!" I barely managed to say even that because my head was nearly exploding...or so it felt. I showed no signs of weakness on the outside though.

"For starters, I didn't even know you until yesterday! Secondly, we wouldn't need to protect the city because it's already being protected!" She walked back over to her punching bag as if she was done with the conversation, but I wasn't.

I could have sworn that we were protectors of the city at one point. That's what the back of my mind told me. "Wait! Videl!" I rushed over to where she was standing and was about to throw the first punch at the bag.

"I said you could stay the night," she spat, throwing a punch. "I wanted to help you, and I did the best that I could, but all I get in return is some crazy talk! I think it is time for you to leave!"

"Earlier you said that the city is already being protected! Maybe they'll give me answers! You have to at least tell me who's protecting it!" I begged her.

She quickly spun to face me and had a frustrated look on her face. "They're not really a who, but more of a what. Anyway, to answer your question, the androids are." An eerie chill went down my spine. "Now get a clue and get out!"

_Android..._ That word gave me a funny feeling. I couldn't place that feeling, but I knew that I definitely had a past with androids. Did I protect the city alongside them? _No. That doesn't seem right._ I tried to search for any memories, but the more I thought, the more my temples ached. It was no use. I couldn't remember.

"Are you going to continue standing there, wasting air, or are you going to leave?" Videl rudely asked.

I crossed my arms defiantly. "You weren't this rude yesterday. Or even earlier this morning."

She clenched her fists tightly. "Yesterday, I didn't have my head screwed on correctly! And earlier this morning, I was extremely tired! I didn't get much sleep last night thanks to you, so now I am extremely cranky! I actually started to believe you, but now, I guess I've finally realized that I'm housing an insane criminal! Give me one good reason to believe you again, or you'll become my human punching bag!"

Swallowing, I tried to think of something reassuring to say. "Um, I know that your favorite color is chartreuse!" _There you go! That seemed to really soften her yesterday!_

Out of no where, Videl swung her fist and knocked me to the ground. I wasn't expecting to actually get hit! Something small fell out of one of my pockets and hit the ground, but I made no move to pick it up. I was too stunned that she actually punched me!

Videl hovered over me. "That wasn't good enough. Care to try again and risk getting punched once more?"

I stumbled back on to my feet. "Wait, Videl! I think I dropped something!"

"Nice try!" she said as she threw another punch, but this time I was expecting it.

My hand quickly shot up and caught her fist before she could hit me. I felt her struggle a bit in my grip until she swung her other hand, which I also caught. This time _she_ seemed to be taken somewhat off guard, but she still continued to try and hurt me.

Videl used one of her legs to try to swing and kick me, but I stopped it early with a leg of my own. She struggled under my grip for a few more seconds until she finally gave in and stopped. I dropped her hands and stared at her as she backed away a little. I interpreted this as somewhat of a surrender, so I turned around and searched the floor for whatever fell out of my pocket earlier.

But she wasn't finished! She tried to sneakily punch me from behind, but I could sense her movement and caught her fist once again. After another second, I dropped her hand and turned around. I would search for that thing in a second.

She looked completely stunned. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" I asked. "Catch your fists? It's simple. I just moved my hand to where your hand was going and-"

"You're really funny," she spat sarcastically. "Now seriously. How could you tell that I was going to punch you?"

I gave a cheesy grin even though I knew how frustrated she was with me. "Oh that? Well, I just sensed your movement. It's pretty simple really. Now would you mind not attacking me for a split second because I'm trying to look for what I dropped..."

"No ordinary person can just do that!" she exclaimed incredulously. "Who are you...?"

I laughed as I scanned the floor once more. Whatever I dropped must have been tiny! "If I knew, I would tell you! Heck, I probably wouldn't still be here now, would I?"

She didn't say anything more, and I continued scanning the floor again. I spotted a teeny, somewhat spherical object lying next to the wall closest to where I was at. I assumed that it must have been what I dropped. I picked it up and examined it closer and realized it was a green, small bean thing.

I had no idea what it was, but I was sure it was mine. I sniffed it, but it didn't have much of a scent. I rubbed it between two of my fingers gently. It was definitely a bean. As I began to put it in my mouth, Videl cried out, "Stop it!"

"Why?" I asked. "It's just a bean."

"Yeah, but it fell on the ground," she said making a face. "The floor's all dirty in here."

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't mind. I wanna know what it is."

"Don't eat it!" she yelled, stopping me once more. "What if it's poison for your enemies?"

"Are you still stuck on the idea that I'm a criminal?"

"Yes! I mean, it's painfully obvious that you know how to fight!"

"What if I only know how to defend?"

"Well, then maybe that's why you need to poison your enemies!"

"Or maybe you're overreacting, and you've mistaken me for someone else!"

Videl actually bore her teeth like a wild animal. "Look! I know what I saw! And that was your pale little face on several wanted posters throughout the city! I will find the poster that I have and prove it to you, but first, I want to know what else is in your pockets."

"What?!" I asked loudly.

"You did say that the bean fell out of your pocket, right?" she asked slowly, and I nodded. "Okay. So would it be ridiculous to assume that you have more in your pockets than one little bean? Have you ever even checked them?"

A sudden realization hit me when I recognized that Videl was right. I _hadn't_ ever checked my pockets for anything. I quickly did so and found two more strange beans in my left pocket plus an ugly, metal bracelet. In my right pocket I felt a small card, and I pulled it out.

Videl snatched the card out of my hand before I even got a glance at it. "What?! This is a student ID! This says that you're a student at Orange Star High School! But that's impossible! That's where I go!"

A rush of excitement surged through my body. _I knew it! _"What's my name?!" It was as if I were a small child on Christmas waiting to get their present.

She looked up at me and blinked twice. "Gohan. But this doesn't make sense..."

"Gohan," I said my name aloud. It fit perfectly in my head. It made sense. The back of my brain buzzed with warmth, and I knew that it was correct. It caused other things to stir inside my mind, but nothing stood out. I didn't want to think about it too hard or else my temples would start to hurt again.

I tried to take my ID back from her, but she swatted my arm away. "Look, Gohan, this ID can't be real."

"What do you mean?" I asked her, narrowing my eyes.

"Your ID says that Orange Star High is located in Satan City." She held it up high as if she were checking for some sort of water mark or other proof that it was fake.

I finally grabbed my ID, and looked at it for myself. "Gohan...student at Orange Star High School...Satan City," I read the card, skimming the information. "Is it not in Satan City?"

Videl looked at me as if I had lost it for real this time. "No! It's not! There is no Satan City! Why would there be a whole city named after my family?"

I shrugged and stared at my ID photo. It wasn't a bad picture of me actually. "Did you guys do something important?"

She shook her head violently. "No! The most important thing that's happened is that my dad won the World Martial Arts Tournament! But that's not _that_ big of a deal..."

"Tournament," I commented. That seemed like an important memory that had some sort of connection to my past.

"What?!" she exclaimed.

"What?" I asked in return.

She narrowed her eyes at me and stuck out a finger. "You can't just say 'tournament' ominously without saying anything else!"

I crossed my arms and met her glare. "I didn't think I said it ominously. It just sounded familiar! That's all!"

Videl suddenly rushed up to the punching bag and threw a punch so hard that one of the seams actually caused it to rip, and its contents spilled out. "Okay. I'm going upstairs. To my bedroom. To take a shower. And to cool down before I lose my mind! Then, I am going to find that stupid poster and prove to you that _I_ am not the crazy one!"

She quickly stormed out of the room, and I stared after her for a second before walking out on my own. I wasn't sure where to go now. I decided to return to my bedroom and wait there until Videl had showered and cooled off. I even remembered how to get there on my own!

I paced around my room for a little bit. Obviously, my student ID was an important asset to my memory. It told me my name. It also made me feel stupid that I didn't check my pockets earlier. But what about the beans and the metal bracelet? Surely there was some reason why I was carrying them with me too.

Videl's primary focus was the ID because that's where she knew she could get information from. That information conflicted with what she knew though. _My ID says Satan City although she says that there is no such place. _It also had my name on it. I was unsure whether or not the ID itself was real, but I knew for a fact that my name really was Gohan.

I looked at the bed where I had dropped all the items from my pockets. It felt to me as if we were overlooking the three beans and the bracelet. I knew that somehow they were key to unlocking my memories. I didn't know the purpose of either of the items though. Three beans? Was this Jack and the Beanstalk or something? And the bracelet... It was too ugly to be a fashion accessory. Although, I'm not sure I know a whole lot about fashion.

The beans were for some sort of emergency. That much I could recall, but it caused my temples to ache just like before. In fact, it seemed like the more I tried to remember, the more they hurt. I wanted to know why I had these emergency beans to begin with, and what constituted an emergency, but the pain was too much. This was all I could remember for now.

I laid down on top of the bed and closed my eyes, trying to relax and hopefully ease the pain. I hadn't told Videl about how much it hurt to try and remember things because I figured that she would just say something rude in return. She was really grumpy and tired right now. _She sure did have quite the punch too..._

After closing my eyes and lying there without thinking for quite some time, my throbbing headache went away. I had no idea if temple-headaches were supposed to happen to people with amnesia or not. They were so intense, I highly doubted it.

Soon enough there was a knock on my door. "Come in," I called out.

Videl walked in with something in her hand. She was dressed a lot nicer now. She had on a flowy white blouse, some blue jeans, and a pair of combat boots. She even had on fingerless gloves. Her hair was now neatly tied in pigtails, but they did not make her look childish. She also had on a little bit of makeup, and I realized once more how pretty this girl was.

"How did you know I was in here?" I asked slowly.

She stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips, one hand holding what appeared to be a paper. "Lucky guess. I thought I would check the room nearest to mine first. Anything new, _Gohan_?"

I shuddered. "Why did you have to say my name like that? I mean, it's great that we now know what my name is, but you don't have to make it sound like I've done something wrong!"

"Haven't you?" she asked, placing the piece of paper right in front of me on the bed.

I picked the sheet up and read it. Sure enough, it was that wanted poster that she had told me about. On it, there was a picture of me, my name, a phone number to contact if I was found, and a large amount of reward money for turning me in alive. _Only_ if I was alive though.

"That's strange," I commented after examining it. "It doesn't say what I did wrong or who that phone number even belongs to. Don't you think that's important information to know?"

Videl shrugged. "It doesn't matter. They took all the posters down, so it's obvious you were eventually turned in. But I told you that I was right! That's you, isn't it?"

"It looks a lot like me," I said. "And that's my name, but I don't think it is."

"Are you kidding me?!" she suddenly burst out. "Of course that's you! Obviously your hairstyle has changed a little bit, but that's reasonable! This was from a few months ago! You can't just go around denying everything that you don't remember! Who else could this person be?! Just admit it! You were once a wanted criminal!"

I shook my head as I examined the picture of myself some more. "No. That isn't me."

Videl looked at me as if I were an idiot. "It's you! It has to be you! You just don't remember it, so get over it! If you don't want to be a criminal, then just change! All I know is that I'm getting tired of this stupid little game that you're playing, constantly rushing around in circles denying this and that and making up all sorts of trash!"

As I stared at the picture of me on the paper, I walked over to one of the mirrors in the room. "I would like to think I know what I look like. This picture can't possibly be me."

"Are you ignoring me?!" she yelled out, marching over to the mirror. "You can't ignore me! I'm Videl Satan, so you better listen up, punk. I want you to-"

I grabbed onto her wrist to catch her attention. I then took the wanted poster from my other hand and shoved it into Videl's hand that I was grabbing on to. I was dead serious now. Pointing to the bridge of my nose, I said, "No scar." I pointed to the nose of the Gohan on the paper that she was holding. "Scar."

She examined my face really closely and must've realized that there were absolutely no traces of the scar that was on the picture. "It could have faded or something..."

I looked her dead in the eyes. "You said this was only from a few months ago. Do you think a scar like that could fade all the way in just a few months? And even if it is a picture older than that, I highly doubt a mark that dark would ever fade to be completely nonexistent!"

Videl rubbed my nose where the scar should have been. "This can't be real. This is like...some sort of trick. I don't know. You certainly know how to screw things up, Gohan. I just don't understand. There's no explanation. Nothing adds up." She stopped her pointless rambling for a second. "Is this like a prank or something? Is someone going to pop out with a camera and tell me that I've humiliated myself on TV?"

I gave a half-hearted smile. "Nope! You won me fair and square on that game show! I'm no prankster, just the perfect boyfriend!"

"At least we have your _amazing_ humor to rely on," she said sarcastically.

"Look, I didn't ask for this," I explained. "I really am not trying to contradict everything you say. I'm just telling you exactly what I do and don't remember and everything that seems right and wrong. You just have to believe that I'm telling the truth.

"I don't think I'm a criminal because I protect people. I'm pretty sure I go to that school with you, and I know that ID is real. I don't know why it says Satan City if supposedly that doesn't exist, but that's the name for the city that makes sense to me. And I can't explain the beans or the bracelet, but I'm sure they tie into this too!

"Throughout this all, anytime I get snippets of my past or try to remember things that I don't know, my temples ache for some unknown reason. And I don't really want to think about it, because lately, that pain has been worsening with every memory!"

Videl stared at me and said nothing for the longest time. Finally, she let out a long sigh. "It's like you're from another world, Gohan. I just don't know how to explain any of these things!"

That warmth in the back of my mind buzzed once more. "I think...I think that idea may not be as crazy as it sounds."

"What are you talking about?" she asked skeptically.

The aching in my temples returned just like I expected it to when I tried to think about my past. "What if I am from a different world? Maybe not necessarily a different planet, but perhaps an alternate universe!"

She stared at me as if I had lost it, and even though I wanted to explain more, the pain in my brain took the attention away from my words, and directed it to how much it felt like my head was exploding...or maybe imploding. In either case, it was going to be exceptionally painful, and I could not hold my brave face for any longer.

I fell to my knees and held my head with my hands. I cried out in pain. Videl quickly dropped next to me and placed a hand on my shoulder out of genuine concern. I yelled loudly. She said something, but I couldn't hear anymore. My vision was blurring. Everything was blurring. And then everything was gone.

**_..._**

**_(Somehwere else, in that same dark room)_**

"Sir, your people have found nothing."

"My people? Is _that_ what's going on?"

"What- What are you talking about?"

"Did you send out our human soldiers?"

"Um, yes sir. You said to begin the search for the boy."

"Did you not listen to my specific orders to send our elite?! These human soldiers are pathetic and good for nothing! They don't even function well as guards! One day they will all be replaced..."

"So do you want-"

"Yes! Of course! I want you to use the androids to search for him! They are much better trackers after all."

"But there aren't as many of-"

"Do as I say!"

* * *

**Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this mind-boggling chapter as a whole! Lots of new information and ideas, isn't there? :D Don't be afraid to give this story a follow or a favorite or a review!**

**-TOW**


	4. Chapter 4: Understanding the Concept

**Chapter 4! Random fact: I got the idea for this story while I was showering early morning on Christmas Day (yes, I wrote it that long ago). On that note, I hope you all enjoy this chapter! :D**

* * *

Chapter 4: Understanding the Concept

_"Gohan. I'm not sure you should be doing this." A lady with blue hair was talking to me._

_"What did I say earlier? It'll be no big deal!" I heard myself say the words, but I had no control over my actions. "I'll be fine! And even if something happens, we always have our plan!"_

_The blue-headed lady looked back at her car and let out a deep breath. "Your mother is going to go on a rampage if she ever finds out that I put you in potential danger!"_

_I gave a flashy grin. "You are the smartest person I know! With your skills put to use, nothing could go wrong! There will be no danger! I think that this will be kind of fun actually! I'm curious to see how it goes!"_

_She sighed loudly. "Just...don't do anything stupid, okay? Make it back safe, or else your mother-"_

_"It'll be over in a jiffy!" I cut her off. "Thanks again for your help!" _

_"Just remember-"_

I shot straight up from wherever I was lying down. _Great._ I was awake. That was my first real memory of an event and not just some small snippet of something, and I woke up without learning anything new. A blue haired woman was helping me with some sort of dangerous plan. That wasn't much to go off of. _What was did she want me to remember?_

"Great!" Videl cheered from beside me. I looked around and realized I was on my bed, and she was in a chair next to me. "I'm glad you're awake! Are you feeling better?"

"Feeling better...?" I questioned with uncertainty.

She nodded slowly. "You weren't doing too great earlier. You started talking all crazy... Well, crazier than normal anyway. Something about an alternate universe. Anyway, you then started shouting in pain and collapsed."

"Oh," was all I had to say.

"Once again, you've done an excellent job of freaking me out," she said. "I was really hoping you'd be out of my house by now, but you're clearly in no condition to leave."

I met her eyes. "How long was I out?"

"Something like two hours."

"And you stayed here the whole time?"

Her cheeks got a little flushed and she looked away. "Well, yeah. Who else was supposed to make sure there wasn't a dead body lying around? I had to make sure you were still alive."

I smirked. "Phew! For a second there I thought you might have been getting _attached_ to me!"

"Oh shut up!" she shouted. "You've made me actually question my very own existence, and yet you act like a child when it comes to things like this! Grow up already! I am trying to do the nice and mature thing and help you out. I could have just dumped you out on the street while you were unconscious, but I graciously allowed you to stay here a little bit longer."

"So does that mean you actually believe my 'crazy talk'?" I asked with a goofy grin.

Videl rolled her eyes. "I definitely think there is a lot more to your story than what either of us know, and also that either of us could easily be _misinformed_ about certain things, but that doesn't mean I believe everything you say. Something weird is going on though..."

"Definitely," I agreed. Then I changed the subject a little. "I'm sorry that I have to keep bothering you with all my...issues, but thank you so much for letting me stay here for quite some time despite all that has been going on."

I wasn't really sure why, but Videl was making an angry face at me. I was just trying to be a respectful guest, like I'm sure I had been raised to be. She didn't seem to appreciate my appreciation though. Her scowl grew more intense the longer I looked at her.

"What did I do?" I asked. "I was just trying to be nice. I guess I just feel a little guilty that I've had to overwhelm you with all of my problems as of late. You didn't sign up for this. Neither of us did. But without you, I think I'd be kind of lost right now. Who knows where I'd be staying? And who knows what I would know? You've been such a big help between giving me a place to temporarily stay at and awakening my memories and glimpses of my past, even if you aren't completely sure how accurate they are."

I thought that giving a little thank-you spiel would really help calm her sudden anger down, but it only seemed to grow as if I were just feeding the flames. What else could I do at this point? I guess it was time for me to get out of her hair and leave. That would probably be the wisest choice, but where to now? I still didn't know very much.

Videl grabbed the collar of my shirt, and she pulled me very close to her. Once again, I was grateful that she smelled really nice. "Gohan. You have made my life a complete wreck lately! I tried to convince myself that you were a hopeless jerk, an insane criminal, just some pretty-boy prankster. It's clear to me that I was wrong for trying to believe those things.

"Like I said earlier, this doesn't mean that I completely believe you, but I do know how to recognize the truth in someone's voice. You've genuinely believed everything that you have said, no matter how crazy it seems to me. You're also genuinely a really nice, good guy, and I know that you could never have been a criminal.

"Even though I only wanted to help you out just a little, even though I don't know what's really going on, and even though I am still tempted to dump you out on the streets, I realize that things are much more complex than I could have ever imagined. And at this point, I'm too involved in the mess that I guess is your life to leave you hanging.

"You act like a gentleman for the most part, even though sometimes you try to be funny when you're not, and I'm often the world's biggest jerk, so I feel a little guilty. You've done nothing wrong. You're just lost and confused, like a poor little puppy. I guess what I'm really trying to say is...that you can stay at my house until we get to the bottom of this."

I blinked twice as she dropped my collar and backed away. "That long speech only to tell me that I could stay at your house?"

Videl crossed her arms. "I put my heart into that! Don't make me take back anything and everything I said!"

I shook my head quickly. "No! It's all good! I enjoyed listening to your heartfelt monolgue. So does this mean you'll listen to my crazy talk?"

She made a face, and I knew we were back to the same routine. "Yes. I'll listen to your crazy talk, but I am in no way obligated to agree with everything you say!"

Smiling, I got up off of the bed and wandered around the room. "Great! Now where should I start my crazy talk?"

Videl let out a sigh. "Well, before you passed out, you were saying some crazy things about alternate universes and stuff. That's somewhere to start. Although, I'm a little worried you'll faint again."

"I'll be fine," I said reassuringly. "When I fainted earlier, it was because I was trying to remember the universe where I think I am from. See, I think the pain in my temples is triggered by me trying to remember my past life. However, I can explain the concept of other universes using basic theoretical science, which is not a memory of my past. I'm no expert, but I'm not going to question why I have the little knowledge I do have on the subject. Doing that would trigger the pain."

"You must be quite the nerd," Videl commented.

I laughed a little and felt myself grow a little anxious. I was worried she would stir some memories and cause the pain in my head, but nothing happened. "Yeah, I guess I can be. Would you like to hear my explanation now?"

"Go for it," she stated. "I have a feeling this is not going to be something easy for me to comprehend."

"We'll see," I told her. "So to start off, you'll need to be a bit familiar with the concept of multiple timelines, which I'm sure you are. No? Okay. How should I explain this?" I paced around a bit.

"In this explanation of time, time doesn't just move forwards or backwards or any of that. Time shouldn't really be seen as a line, but more of...an ongoing web, with an infinite number of timelines occurring all at once. See, for each choice you have to make, a new timeline is created with the consequences of any other action you could have taken at that moment. In these new timelines, more and more different choices are offered and create what is essentially another universe.

"When most people think of traveling back in time, they are probably actually thinking of someone traveling to an alternate timeline, or because I don't like the fact that it's seen as a line, an alternate universe. Because these two universes are separate, if someone were to go back and change something, those changes would have no effect in that person's original universe."

Videl actually appeared to be following for the most part. "So 'Back to the Future' could never happen?"

"According to this theory...no," I answered. "Anyway, I guess you could even say that I traveled through time to get to this universe somehow. I'm not sure if I did or not because this could be the same point in 'time' that my universe is in right now. That type of time referring to the day and hour and such. The only reason my universe and yours are different is because of the consequences of a choice someone made. Does this make sense to you?"

After staring at me for a second, she slowly nodded. "Sort of, but wow. You really are a nerd. I think I do get the gist of it though. Whenever someone has to make a choice, another universe is created with the consequences of another action that could have been taken instead. And you're from a world where different choices were made."

I grinned happily. My explanation seemed to be effective. "That was a great summary! You seem to understand! Awesome! So now do you see how on the earth that I am from, I could be friends with you and go to a school in Satan City and everything else?"

Just as I began to bring up my actual past my temples began to ache again. "Great. My head is hurting. Not nearly as intense as earlier, but because we're talking about my universe specifically now, I guess it's their cue to start hurting."

I needed to sit down, so I took a seat on the bed. Videl watched me try to handle the pain like a man from her chair beside the bed. "Do you think you're just experiencing this because you're from another universe? Is that also why you can't remember anything?"

I shook my head, which was starting to feel a little better. "That's just assuming that I'm right about this alternate universe theory, which I do feel pretty confident in. So even if we do assume that what I said is true, forgetting everything would make it be extremely difficult for me to return to my own universe. In order to go back, I'd have to remember that it was there and remember how to get there to begin with. It just doesn't make any sense to forget everything all of the sudden."

"But what about the pain?" she asked with concern.

I shrugged. "I'm not really sure. It's possible that it could be from that, but it's also possible that it isn't. To me, it just seems like I'm trying too hard to grasp at memories that aren't there, and my body just physically can't handle it."

She looked down at her hand and started wiggling her fingers anxiously. "I'm not- I'm not saying that I believe you about all of this, but it certainly would explain a lot of things... I think that I understand what you're saying, and I'm amazed that this could actually be possible. It's just a little hard to actually comprehend everything that's been going on, but I'm doing my best."

"You're doing great," I added with a smile. "You seem to understand the concept, and right now it doesn't really matter if you believe it. To be honest, I'm not sure even I believe it fully. It was just an idea that came to mind, but based on the way my temples reacted, it definitely seems to hold at least some truth."

I waited for her to say something more, but she stayed quiet. It was kind of weird really. She was such a loud and frustrated girl earlier today, to see her finally shut up was kind of surprising. Videl seemed like she was in a bit of shock though. I guess I really freaked her out by passing out, and now I really was speaking crazy talk.

My stomach growled and interrupted the silence. I rubbed the back of my head out of embarrassment, and Videl just shook her head as she looked at me. It wasn't my fault I was hungry!

"Uhh..." I awkwardly said. "I'm kind of hungry, I guess. I didn't eat breakfast earlier, and then I was unconscious for a little while... All this thinking and stuff certainly has made me starving!"

Videl looked at the door and stood up. She seemed to be trying to go back to her usual aura of nonchalance. "Well, it is basically lunch time now. I guess since you'll be staying here for a bit, you'll be dining with us too."

"Maybe now I can meet your father!" I said excitedly.

She made a face. "Umm... He has been gone a lot recently, so probably not. I'm sure you will eventually meet him though. Just don't...tell him about...anything. If he finds out that you've been feeding me 'crazy talk,' you will not be welcomed so easily. If you just talk to him nicely, then he probably won't care...I hope."

I met her eyes. "So lunch now?"

"Yeah," she agreed, gesturing for me to follow her out of the room. "Let's go downstairs to the kitchen."

After quickly shoving the few possessions I owned in my pockets again, I followed Videl to the kitchen where the chef was beginning to make preparations for lunch. He smiled and greeted Videl kindly, but when he saw me, I could practically see the color drain from his face.

"I enjoyed your soup so much last night, I cannot wait to taste what you're preparing for lunch!" I said with genuine excitement.

Chef shook his head violently. "No! No! There will be no lunch for you! You eat too much food too quickly, and I will not have enough ingredients to prepare this meal for everyone in this house!"

"But it was _so_ good!" I tried to encourage him to let me eat. "I really liked it. Doesn't that make you want to cook more?"

"I already told you, we will not have enough ingredients to prepare a meal for you too!" he shouted. "Do you not understand that there are more people in this household than just the Satan family, and they need to eat too! I will not feed you again you little-" A bunch of words came out of his mouth that I didn't understand. They were in another language.

I looked over at Videl as Chef turned around and walked away from us. "What did he just say?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Beats me. I don't speak that language. I'm sure it wasn't pretty though. He is known to have...a bit of a temper."

"I've noticed," I commented as I remembered him shouting at the maid last night. "So what am I supposed to eat?"

Videl didn't look too happy about this either. "Hey Chef!" she shouted to the man in the kitchen. "Gohan and I are going to eat out somewhere, so don't worry about us for lunch, okay?" She looked at me. "That is okay with you, right?"

I nodded. "Sure! Where are we going?"

She began to walk away from the kitchen, so I assumed we were now leaving her house. "There's this great little restaurant just down the street. We could actually walk there, it's that close."

"I could go for a walk," I told her.

Videl nodded, and I followed her to the door. She grabbed a purse, hanging on a rack nearby, then opened the door and we were immediately refreshed by the nice day it was. She even made a comment about how great it felt outside. I was just glad that she seemed to be in a better mood. I also wondered though if this was just her feeling a little bit guilty about earlier, especially when she punched me.

I walked alongside her on the sidewalk. "So I guess this could, uh, count as that date that I owe you, right?"

She rolled her eyes, but surprisingly didn't blow up in my face like I had half-expected her too. "No way! It's just a casual meal at a restaurant. I'll have to speak with our chef about preparing meals for you in the future though. But, um, Gohan?"

"Yeah?" I questioned.

"Could you, uh, try not to eat so much and so quickly for the well-being of my family's chef and his sanity?" she asked.

At first I thought she might be joking (and she was somewhat), but then I realized she actually _did_ expect me to eat less. I figured that now was not the time to bring up the fact that I didn't even eat enough to completely satisfy me last night. Maybe eating at the restaurant would be my last chance at stuffing myself...

Then a realization hit me. "The cost!" I exclaimed. "I don't have any money to pay for the meal! The proper thing would be for me to pay for your meal too Videl, but I don't even have any money at all!"

Videl reached into her purse and pulled out a slim wallet. "It's fine, Gohan. I already told you it's not a date or anything. Besides, in this wallet, I have a debit card to pay for everything with. Thanks to my dad, I now have more money than I know what to do with."

"Oh yeah," I said quietly as we arrived at the restaurant.

"Here we are!" she said with a grin. "I'm sure you'll love this place! Everyone working here is so nice, and everything tastes so great! Let's go talk to them and get a seat!"

We entered the restaurant together, and Videl talked to one of the workers. "Hi! Can we get a table for two please? Oh! Can we actually eat outside?"

"No problem," he told us. "Follow me please." He led us through a crowded central dining location to a door that went outside. "Here is a table, and here are your menus. I will go get Gloria, who will be your waitress."

Even though she said it wasn't a date, I still did the gentlemanly thing to do, and pulled out the chair for Videl to sit in before taking a seat of my own. "Outside, huh? Well, it is a nice day."

She shrugged. "I figured that you wouldn't mind. Plus, you could use some more sunlight. You're pretty pale."

"And I'm sure that sitting in a shaded area is going to help that a lot," I joked.

"Hey! You never know!" Suddenly, she became more serious as she opened her menu. "Do you really think a whole other universe is created just because I will choose...one type of noodles over another?"

I opened my menu and stared at all the options. "Well, I guess so. It seems pretty simple, but you never really know what long-term affect it may have."

"Yeah, I guess," she said quietly. "So...do you think there is also a universe where I got my car by opening door two instead of getting you on that game show?"

"I'm sure there is, based on this theory anyway. I mean, it's the same situation as the choice between foods, only the outcome is a bit more-" I stopped talking and suddenly realized what she was thinking. "Wait a minute. You aren't actually thinking about going to that universe, are you?"

"Well, I mean-"

"You can't just do that! We don't even know how to travel there! Just because I'm here, doesn't mean that you can go somewhere else too. We don't know how or why I came here to begin with, remember?" I realized I was a little loud, so I stopped talking.

She let out a sigh of disappointment. "Yeah, you're right. Our main focus needs to be figuring out why you are here and getting your memories back."

Before either of us could say anything more, a pretty red-headed woman in her early twenties strolled over to our table. "Hello! I'll be your waitress for today. My name is Gloria. Can I get you guys started on something to drink and any appetizers?"

"Water for me," Videl answered quickly.

"Yeah, me too," I said, not knowing what kinds of things I liked to drink.

Gloria smiled, mainly at me. "Okay, but are you sure you don't want to try-"

"Just water is fine," I cut her off.

"I'll be sure to be back in a jiffy," she said with that same smile and even a wink. She hardly even seemed to pay Videl any attention. I was kind of surprised, since she was a celebrity.

As soon as she left, I was ready to continue my conversation with Videl, but she had a look on her face as if she had just tasted something sour. "I don't like that waitress. She's new."

"She seemed nice to me..."

"Whatever," Videl said curtly. "I think I'm going to go to the bathroom. Don't try anything stupid." Then she stood up and walked away, making me look like a loner.

It wasn't too shortly after that Gloria came back with our drinks. "Wow! You are fast," I commented.

She smiled and winked at me. "I wouldn't lie to someone like you! Hey, where'd your girlfriend go?"

"Oh. She's not my girlfriend," I explained awkwardly. "She just left for the bathroom, like, 30 seconds ago."

The waitress's smile widened. "Oh, really? Well, I guess I'll just come back to get your orders in a few. Don't go anywhere!" Then with another wink, she walked off. I was beginning to wonder if she was actually winking, or if she just had a really bad eye-twitch.

A young man with a bouquet of flowers was led to a table next to mine, where he slumped over and banged his head against the tabletop. I looked over at him. "Are you okay, man?"

He looked up at me and narrowed his eyes. "Why'd you care? My girlfriend just stood me up, but- Oh! D'you get stood up too?" His eyes fell on the empty seat in front of me.

"What?!" I looked over at it too. "Oh! No! Videl just left to use the restroom real quick."

The man's eyes widened. "Videl? As in, Videl Satan?"

"Yep," I answered. "Daughter of Mr. Satan himself."

"Whoa! How'd you hook up with her?" he quickly asked. "All the guys 'round here are totally into her, but she says she's got no time for relationships. She's a babe though!"

I gave an awkward laugh and grin. "Yeah, she is very pretty...but we're not on a date or anything. We just decided to eat lunch here together."

"Is that not the same thing?" He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. If you're not on a date, then what business do you have with Videl?"

"We're, um, partners for a school project," I quickly lied.

He stared at me funny. "During the summer time?"

_It's summer?! Oh boy... _"She's, uh, taking a summer class with me! Yeah!"

"You're an awful liar," he told me. "I don't believe you. There's no way Videl Satan would ever even talk to such an awkward fella like you!"

It was at that very moment Videl entered the outside from the restaurant again. "Oh good. We got our drinks. I'm sure Gloria enjoyed doing that..."

She sat back down at the table, and the guy next to us nearly fell over. "NO WAY! YOU WASN'T LYING! IT ACTUALLY IS VIDEL SATAN!"

"Perks of being famous," she softly muttered sarcastically. "Do you want an autograph?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "My girlfriend will never believe this! Can you sign it on my forehead please?"

"Sure thing. Let me grab a pen." Videl fished around in her purse for a thick, black pen. "What do you want it to say?"

"'Take that Sheryl' and then your name, please!"

Videl scribbled the words on his forehead quickly, and then she sat back down at our table. The man ran off screaming, "You've just made my day!"

"That was really nice of you," I told her.

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "It certainly gets old after a while though. But lookee here! Gloria is coming to take our orders and 'subtly' flirt with you again!"

"How can you tell?" I asked as Gloria walked over to our table. Videl gestured to her, using her eyes. Then, she looked back at me and I got her nonverbal message. _Watch._

The waitress hovered behind me. "So what can I get the young lady and handsome young man to eat?"

"Hmm... I've never tried the ramen her before," Videl commented as she looked at her menu. "I guess I'll have that."

"And you, young man?" she asked, resting a hand on my shoulder. I remembered all the winks from earlier.

I shot Videl a look. She was right. And this was getting creepy. "Um...uh..." I stared down at my menu. "It all sounds so good. Can I have one of everything?"

The lady's hand shot up off of my shoulder and both she and Videl nearly fell over. "One of...everything? Are you sure?" She was now backing away to a more central position instead of standing right next to me.

Videl narrowed her eyes at me, then looked over at Gloria. "I'm sorry. My friend here hasn't eaten in a...few days."

"What?!" I exclaimed. "But I ate-"

"That cookie doesn't count!" she strangely interrupted. Then I caught on to what she was doing. I guess she was covering for me to make me seem somewhat normal. I was worried that she was going to be mad at me for ordering such a large amount of food that would end up costing a lot, but she seemed mainly concerned with trying to make ourselves look as natural as possible.

Gloria stared blankly at me. "Well...I guess I can bring out some of the foods first..." She walked off genuinely surprised at my appetite.

"Gohan..." Videl said, drawing out my name. "You really need to get that appetite of yours under control when the chef makes meals for you again. For now, I'll let this slide...I guess. But are you really going to eat all of that food?"

"Of course!" I said loudly. "I'm starving! I haven't eaten in forever! I need a good meal to satisfy me."

She seemed to be at a loss for words temporarily. Then she broke the silence. "Can I see your bracelet again?"

"Hmm? Oh. Yeah." I shuffled through my pockets to find it, then I plopped it on top of the table. "It's kind of weird, isn't it? All metallic and stuff."

She picked it up and began to examine it closely. "It is pretty weird. I don't know much about anything, but do you think this bracelet could somehow double as the device that linked you to this universe to begin with?"

I watched her fiddle with the accessory. "I never really thought of that... Yeah. Yeah! Maybe you're right! I don't know how it works though. Are there any buttons?"

"It doesn't look like it," she answered as she squinted her eyes, still examining it. "Maybe there's some sort of trigger that causes it to work though? Is that possible?"

I shrugged. "I'm not some sort of expert on this stuff, you know. Or at least I don't think I am. If it were triggered by an external force, then perhaps it might respond to some sort of specific electromagnetic signal."

"Wow," Videl breathed. "I have no idea what you just said, but it makes it sound like this is like a magic bracelet or something..."

I opened my hand out to her as a request for the bracelet back. She took a second, but complied. I bounced it in my hand. "The density of it, especially this specific round area right here, it makes me think it might be a magnet. I'm not sure. I don't remember anymore specific science details, and I have gone a decent amount of time without a headache, so I'm not going to try and think about this too hard for now, okay?"

She nodded. "I understand. The pale and awkward nerd with a big apetite and hardly any memories just wants to enjoy his food."

I smiled. "And the obnoxious, sometimes nice, sometimes jerky girl with a fist bigger than her head and an ego only rivaled by her dad's is certainly one to call people names."

"You remembered my dad's big ego," she said. "Is your head starting to hurt now?"

I shook my head. "No. I guess it really only happens when I try to purposely reach for information that's not there. Whenever I blurt out random things that naturally flow out of my mouth without even thinking, like that bit about your dad, I don't feel any side-effects."

"Gohan," Videl slowly began to say. "Do you think- Do I- Are we-" She was having trouble forming her question, but it didn't matter because Gloria brought out our food.

She gave Videl her ramen, and then she gave me three different dishes, all of which looked so good. "This is just to start. We have more being prepared right now. I hope you enjoy."

Gloria walked off and we both began to dig in. Videl was still a lot slower than me, even with one dish when I had three. I had already finished all three of the bowls that they brought out for me by the time Videl had eaten maybe half of her meal.

"Hey, weren't you going to ask something?" I questioned as I watched her continue to eat.

She shrugged and swallowed. "It doesn't matter now. It- It's fine. I forgot what it was anyway."

Videl seemed so uncertain, I wasn't sure how to react. "Well, okay, I guess. I hope they bring out my next dishes soon. I'm still hungry. I feel a lot better than I did earlier, but I am not at all full."

Suddenly, some strange object whooshed past the two of us and went down the street really fast. Videl didn't make a big deal of it, but I was more concerned. "What was that?"

"Hmm?" she questioned. Then she realized I was talking about whatever had just gone _whoosh_ down the street. "Oh that. That was just one of the androids. I think I briefly mentioned about how they are the protectors of this city. Anyway, it probably just has some lead or something on an important criminal-tracking case. They're notorious for those. It gets really annoying _really_ quickly."

I panicked momentarily as a thought occurred to me. "I'm not a criminal."

"Well, hopefully not," she agreed, a little surprised by my sudden statement. "You don't seem like it. And if you are really from another world, then maybe you aren't."

"But the me from this universe is, right?" I asked. "And you mistook me for him!"

"Yeah..."

"Think about it!"

"Are you saying-"

"If one of those androids sees me, they might think that I'm him! They might think that I'm some sort of escaped criminal! They might try to come after me!"

Videl caught on and began to get just as antsy as me, especially when another flew by. "What about you not having a scar? And what about your alternate universe theory?"

"Something tells me that that might not be enough evidence to get me out of that sticky situation," I said with a huff.

She looked me dead in the eyes. "You need to get out of the public. You need to stay under the radar until this whole thing is sorted out. No more restaurants."

"Let's leave," I curtly stated. "Now."

"What about paying?" she asked with concern.

I made a face and shrugged. "I don't know! What can we do?"

She sighed, rolled her eyes, and pulled her wallet out of her purse. "Emergency cash. I hate to use it now, but it looks like we have no choice." She pulled out some money and placed it on the table.

**_..._**

**_(Somewhere else, in a dark room...as always)_**

"The androids are searching, sir!"

"Great! It's about time!"

"They've actually been out searching for an hour now."

"Why are they taking so long?"

"Well, um, sir...we have absolutely no idea where the boy ran off to or where to even start the search."

"That's right... He doesn't have any sort of GPS on him so we can track him, does he?"

"I wouldn't know, sir..."

"Just agree with me!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Just remind me to _immediately_ give him a GPS tracker once we recapture him."

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**And so this concludes chapter four. The story is 9 chapters and an epilogue, so we're close to halfway there. Sorry if everything's a bit Americanized, by the way. I'm just not all that familiar with Japenese culture. **

**Anyway, I'm excited to hear what you guys think so far! Fell free to follow/favorite/review! **

**-TOW**


	5. Chapter 5: Gotta Love Androids

**Before we start chapter 5, I just want to thank you all for the support that you've shown this story so far! It means a lot to me! :) On that note, please enjoy this lovely chapter!**

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Chapter 5: Gotta Love Androids

Videl stared out at the street then looked up at the sky. "No more androids seem to be flying anywhere near. Now would be a good time to get out of here!"

I hopped over the little metal fence thing that separated the outside of the restaurant from the street. "Okay. Do you think it'd be safe to be in the air?"

Now she hopped over the fence and landed gracefully beside me. "What do you mean? Does it look like I have a helicopter with me or something?!"

"Well, do you have anything in your purse?" I asked uncertainly.

"In my purse?!" she exclaimed. "Do you just expect me to have a little airplane that can grow to the size of a full-functioning aircraft? We need to get out of here! There is no more time for joking around!"

I looked around nervously. "I'm sorry. I just thought that I remembered-" Then I stopped myself before I said anymore.

Suddenly, she wasn't so angry at me for suggesting she had a mini-flying machine. She was now more in a frantic state of excitement. "What! What! Tell me what you remembered! Is it going to be something that will help us?!"

I shook my head. "I don't know. I don't know what I thought that I remembered. This universe is just so different than mine..."

"Great," she replied sarcastically, the excitement draining from her body. "Now we're wasting even more time. You can get all sentimental about your old world when we get to my house. You said yourself that we need to leave! So let's go! We need to make a run for it before another android comes!"

"Uh-oh!" I blurted, pointing to an odd-looking object, flying just a little above the street in the distance. This android was different though. It was going at a much slower pace as if it were looking for something. "I think it's a little too late to go anywhere now. And I think this one is _scanning_ for criminals!"

Videl stomped the ground out of anger. "Good job! We've wasted lots of time, and now another android is coming! We just need to hope that that thing does not recognize you! Right now, we need to focus on blending in..."

"I have an idea, but you can't freak out, okay?!" I asked, dead-serious. She nodded quickly.

I quickly pressed my lips against hers and began to kiss her. I knew she wouldn't take it well, but she just had to trust me! I would never use this as an opportunity to take advantage of her, I just genuinely thought that this might work. I felt a sense of familiarity when I kissed her though. It felt like I've kissed her before.

But immediately after I kissed her, she jumped away quickly. "What are you doing?! I thought you said-"

I grabbed her arm and pulled her close to me again. "Just trust me! I'll explain later!" I hissed quickly before I kissed her some more.

This time she gave in and actually kissed me back. We were positioned perpendicular to the fence behind me and to the street in front of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the slow-moving android draw closer and closer. If we could keep this up for just a few more moments, then maybe-

"I have round two dishes!" I heard Gloria say as the restaurant door behind me opened. "Hey! Where'd you guys go?"

Videl was trying to pull away, perhaps to say something to Gloria, but I held her face with my hand as a sign that we had to still keep this up. She kicked my foot, and I flinched a little, but I pressed my palm harder against her cheek. _Just. Hold. On._

"Oh!" Gloria exclaimed. "There you guys are! _Ohhh_. Um, well, uh...is this money for paying?"

Videl pushed my hand off of her face and broke away. "We're done eating! He decided that he didn't want all the food after all! And yes, that money is to pay for the meal! Go back to serving someone else now!"

_Oh no!_ The android was practically right in front of us now! This was not the time for her to ruin my plan by having a conversation with someone else! It was a little bit forceful, but I grabbed her face and kissed her for the third time. Still, she put up with it for a few more moments. Then, the android had passed us, and we were out of its view.

This time I pulled away, a little bit breathlessly. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do anything that would make you uncomfortable, but it was a last-minute plan! I had to improvise a little!"

"You need to learn how to improvise without having your face right on top of mine!" she shouted loudly, touching her lips. All things considered, she didn't seem too angry when she yelled, and she even seemed to be blushing a little.

I let out a sigh. "Let me explain. It seemed to me that this android was some sort of a scouter-android or something. It must've been looking for criminals like I said earlier. I figured that if it saw me we would be in big trouble, right? And it was too late to go anywhere, right? So I was trying to block both of our faces by putting them right up against each other; a kiss.

"If it saw my face, it would be game over for sure. Nothing probably would have happened if it saw yours, but I was worried that it still could have also seen me somehow, and I didn't want to put you in any danger by it linking you to me. Then we would _both_ be in trouble. That's when I realized we could block each other's faces by kissing! Do you understand?"

Videl was neither amused or impressed. "Really? That was what went through your head?"

"Well, yeah," I said. "It was a pretty brilliant idea for thinking on the spot, wouldn't you agree?"

She shook her head. "No! I don't agree! You just wanted to kiss me! Admit it!"

"What?!" I exclaimed. "I did not! I just needed a plan that would keep us safe!"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah right, _genius_. Did you ever think about just facing the other direction? Both of us facing the other direction?!"

I was at a loss of words. I really wasn't planning on kissing her today, or at all! She _was_ pretty, and I did have this uncanny connection to her, but that didn't mean I wanted to kiss her! That was just genuinely what went through my head! _But maybe I did want to...no! Stop it! _

"Look! I'm sorry that I didn't think it through anymore! I just did the first thing that came to mind-"

"And the first thing that came to your mind was to _kiss_ me?!" Videl exclaimed.

This was not going well. "Well, it is when your face is that close to mine!" I took a deep breath in, hoping that my cheeks weren't too red. "It doesn't matter now. It was what I came up with, and it worked, didn't it?"

She wasn't meeting my eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Let's just stop talking about it."

"We should probably be leaving now, shouldn't we?" I asked. "So we don't have to avoid another android again."

She stared at the ground. "Yeah. Let's go. Let's just go."

We began to quickly cross the street when I noticed something weird in the distance in the direction where the android had flown. "Is that- Is that another android?"

We made it across the street, but we both stopped to stare at what appeared to be an android. Videl narrowed her eyes and looked in the distance. "That's weird. It doesn't seem to be going anywhere..."

"Wait!" I blurted. "I think that might be the same one that passed us when we were kissing! Why would it just stop in the middle of the street like that?"

She shrugged. "Maybe it found a criminal. Let's just go to my house before another one comes!"

It was a stupid thing for me to do, but I darted back out into the street. Thankfully, this was a road that didn't seem to attract a lot of traffic. I watched the android just sit there and do absolutely nothing.

"Gohan! You can't just stand in the middle of the street!" Videl shouted from the sidewalk. "I'm beginning to think you've lost your mind!"

I looked over at her and laughed a little. "I must have since I don't remember very much!"

"Gohan..." she groaned. "This isn't time to be funny. We need to go home!"

"But look!" I said, gesturing to the direction of the android. I still was facing Videl. "It's just standing there like it's broken! Do you think they run on batteries...?"

"GOHAN MOVE, YOU IDIOT!" she screamed. "RIGHT BEHIND YOU!"_ Is it another android?!_

I looked behind me and saw a car that was speeding down the side of the street that I was on. The car was obviously not going to stop either, so I jumped high in the air and let it zoom past me underneath.

Videl was screaming with her eyes covered throughout it all. I paid her little attention as I turned around and watched the same car head toward the android. But acting quickly, the android jumped in the air and landed gracefully back on the ground. So its batteries were not depleted...if it even used any.

"GOHAN!" the teenage girl shouted from somewhere beneath me. My attention was immediately taken away from the android, and I looked down at her. _I looked down...? She's...below me?_

"HOW ARE YOU FLYING?!" she screamed. "IS THIS SOME SORT OF TRICK?! IT'S NOT FUNNY!"

I dropped down to the ground and stood next to her. "Sorry, Videl. I didn't realize I was even doing it. I guess I can fly, but the more important thing right now is-"

"The android," she said, completing my thought.

I nodded. "Right. The android. When the car was-"

"No!" she interrupted me. "I mean, look at the android!"

I did as she said so. "Oh no. It's- It's looking this way! It must have spun around in the air when it jumped so that it could face us! Maybe it won't notice us..."

"We're the only two humans standing in the middle of an empty street, what do you think?"

"Maybe it will just think of us as two ordinary civilians..."

"It's moving closer, Gohan!"

"Maybe it's just lost and needs to ask for directions..."

She seemed to be a little annoyed. "Your excuses are getting lamer and lamer. Now seriously, what should we do?"

The android walked slowly toward us some more. The closer it got, the better view I had of it. I realized that it strongly resembled a human man. "Just don't act guilty and don't panic. It only wants criminals, right?"

Vide's face lit up, and she actually seemed a bit comforted. "You're right! It's only looking for criminals! The you in this world was _once_ a wanted criminal, but it's possible that he has paid for his crimes by now! Maybe you're off the hook, and we're really just overreacting! It probably doesn't even want you after all!"

"Target acquired," the android said, now running up to us.

"Never mind!" she yelled.

I looked her dead in the eyes. "You need to stay out of this!"

"But I can fight!" she argued. "Let me help you!"

I shook my head. The android stood right in front of us now. "No, Videl. Not now. Go home!"

"But-"

"I SAID GO HOME!" I yelled with great frustration. I wasn't sure what was about to go down with this android, but I couldn't forgive myself if I let something happen to Videl. I had such a strong connection to her, and I could tell that I knew her in my universe. This Videl wasn't from my universe, but I still felt...something about her. I knew her really well. And I still didn't know why.

She ran off to the sidewalk. "I don't care what you say! I am not going home! I'm not leaving you alone!"

"Awww..." the android said. His voice was very rusty and gravelly. "Did you get a girlfriend while you were gone?"

I took a fighting stance without even thinking about it. "What do you mean while I was gone?"

He gave an ugly laugh and a creepy smile that didn't meet his cold, blue eyes. "That's right! You can't remember anything, can you?"

I dropped my guard. "How did you know-"

He kicked my stomach, and I flew back through the air many meters away. "I was given specific orders not to kill you, but they never said I couldn't _hurt_ you!" He laughed some more.

I staggered to my feet. "Who is giving you these orders? What do you want with me?!"

He walked over to me, and I took my stance once again. I wasn't going to drop my guard this time when he spoke. "You'll find out soon enough when you come with me, you little punk!"

"I'm not going anywhere!" I spat. "I don't want to harm you, but I will if I have to! Now tell me what's going on! Why can't I remember anything?!"

He grinned. "Because we erased your memory!"

I furrowed my brows. Someone purposely erased my memory? Then maybe my theory about alternate universes was wrong. Maybe I was from this world. Or maybe I wasn't, and they didn't want me to know. It was too hard to tell. "Just tell me what you want with me! Why did you erase my memory?!"

The android was getting obviously impatient. "You are more stubborn than the last guy! If it makes you feel any better, I'll tell you something before I drain most of your life and take you back, barely breathing. You escaped, and I was ordered to find you and bring you back alive. That's all I will tell you."

"But who was 'the last guy' that you mentioned earlier? And who are you bringing me to?" I demanded.

He stomped the ground so hard that an impression was made in the road. "I probably shouldn't have even told you that, so you're lucky! If I tell you anymore they'll have to clear your memory again, and we'd be risking doing _everything_ all over!"

I could tell that I wouldn't be getting anymore information out of him anymore, so I quickly punched him hard in his stomach without any warning and sent _him_ flying backward this time. I was amazed at my strength. The android was huge, yet within an instant he was down.

"Gohan!" Videl yelled from the sidewalk. "He's not done yet! I can still see him moving!"

I ran up to where the android was. Suddenly, he sprung up with a few scratches on his face, probably from sliding on the concrete, and started laughing. "That's quite a punch you've got there, kid! Too bad it has to end right here!"

I smirked a little. "Don't wory. I'm not finished yet."

My fist was going to meet with his face, but he was prepared to stop me this time. He grabbed my wrist, and before I could make another move, something strange began to happen. I felt my energy begin to seep out of my body. It was as if he was absorbing it.

_ "I'll tell you something before I drain most of your life,"_ his words from earlier rang in my ears. That was it. That was exactly what he was doing. He was absorbing my energy to drain my life. But now that I realized that, it was too late to do anything; I was too weak.

"What are you doing?!" Videl shouted at me. "Why aren't you trying to beat him up?! You got him earlier! Why are you guys just standing there?!"

I looked over at her. "I can't do anything. He's draining my energy. I'm so physically...worn..." It was even becoming kind of hard to keep my consciousness, but I did everything I could to get him to let me go.

I tried talking to him, using every last bit of my will that I had. "This is how a coward wins! You're not even fighting me, you big piece of scrap metal! Put me down, and I'll give you a real fight! I could easily beat you if you weren't draining my energy! You're really not all that tough!"

He laughed and swung me from side to side by my arms. "Look at this! I'm in complete control of you! You can't put up a fight! Not in this condition! You're practically a lifeless doll!"

Suddenly, Videl jumped out from nowhere and kicked the android's head clean off his body. Both me and the rest of his body fell to the ground. She wasn't finished though. She walked to where his head rolled and crushed it underneath her foot, stomping hard on it. Then she came back to where I was and freed me from the death grip that I was still in.

She helped me to my feet. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said though I had little energy to stand. "What you did was amazing though!"

She smirked. "Aren't you glad that I didn't 'go home' and 'stay out of it?'"

I gave a small laugh. "Yeah. I guess so. Thanks, by the way."

Her smirk widened into a smile. "It was nothing. I just didn't want anything to happen to you... I didn't know where they were going to take you, but I didn't like the sound of it!"

I nodded, and I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. The android's headless body was standing up again! I didn't know what else to do, so I took some of the little energy I had and blasted him. The body blew up into little pieces.

"What did you just do?!" Videl asked quickly. "First you can fly and now you can fire hand-canons! Are you an android too?!"

I laughed at her remark. "No! It's just something I know how to do!"

"But how is that even possible?" she asked with amazement.

I thought about it for a second. How did I know how to do that? I reached for a memory. This was a bad idea. I had even less energy now than I did a second ago, and I was making my temples start to hurt again.

"You just have to use your energy... It's not hard..."

She recognized that I was struggling with one of my headaches. "Just relax."

"We need to get out of the street," I managed to say through the sheering pain.

I slowly walked across the street to the sidewalk where Videl was standing earlier then fell to my knees. She was right at my side. "It's okay. You don't have to tell me anything if it's going to make you get all hurt, you know!"

I held my head with my hands in agony. "I know. You deserve an answer though. And I don't like the feeling of not knowing stuff!"

She started laughing softly and placed a hand on my shoulder. "But that doesn't mean you should have to suffer! I thought you were going to die for a second!"

The pain was beginning to subside. "Well, we're not completely in the clear. Another android might come. I have very little energy. I really just need to rest somewhere safe. Let's go home. To your home, I mean."

She helped me stand up again. "Are you going to be able to walk?"

"I should be fine," I told her. I took a few steps and nearly fell back down. "Or maybe..."

Videl grabbed my left arm and placed it around her shoulders. Then she wrapped her right arm around my waist. Thanks to this new support she offered me, I was now able to walk a little better. We were slow, but it was faster than staying put where we were earlier.

"Just a little longer, and then we'll be there," she said softly.

I smiled as we walked together some more. "So you're not mad about me kissing you earlier?"

She rolled her eyes. "I could just drop you and leave you here on the sidewalk."

"You didn't answer my question," I reminded her.

"Stupid boy," she muttered. "No. I'm not mad. I really wasn't even all that mad when you kissed me earlier actually. I mean, I was mad, but it was mainly because you caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting it, and then you started making all these weird excuses!"

"I was not making excuses!" I told her. "That was genuinely part of my plan!"

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Whatever. If you wanted to kiss me, you should have just done it another time!"

My heart began to race, and I wondered if I heard her correctly. "You actually would let me kiss you? Not that I necessarily would! I really wasn't kissing you to kiss you. I was kissing you because my plan actually was to hide from the android by doing that. I mean, why would I decide to kiss you with the android so close anyway?"

Her cheeks got flushed. "I didn't mean that you could kiss me, I-" She looked at her feet as she stopped herself from saying anymore. "You have a point though. If you wanted to kiss me to _really_ kiss me, you would have done it at a better time and place."

"Exactly! But you never believe me!" I exclaimed. My body didn't want me to get so excited though, and I felt my fatigue again. "I was just trying to protect you...and me."

"That doesn't change the fact that it was a stupid plan though," Videl said.

I nodded. "I know. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," she told me quickly. We were almost to her house now.

"Why not?" I asked, looking at the big mansion we were approaching.

"Just because I was mad at you earlier and wasn't expecting it doesn't mean that I didn't like it," she explained with a small smile. "I just would have preferred for it not to have been a part of some stupid plan!"

Both of our cheeks were a little red now. "See! You liked it, and now you really do admit that you would let me kiss you!"

She looked away from me and stopped supporting me. We were on her property now, and thankfully I was able to catch my balance by grabbing onto a tree that was next to me. She was facing the other direction. "You just keep misinterpreting what I say!"

"No I'm not!" I shouted at her. "You're just embarrassed! That's why you keep contradicting yourself! You know exactly what you said! You totally want to kiss me again, don't you? You're just too afraid to admit it!"

"I am _not_ afraid!" she yelled back, turning around to face me. "I am Videl Satan, and I'm not afraid of anything!"

"Oh really?" I asked, somehow knowing just how to tease her. I found the one thing she couldn't ignore. A challenge. "Prove it!"

"Fine!" She walked up to me and looked me dead in the eyes. "I may have enjoyed that kiss a little, and I wouldn't mind kissing you again under better circumstances and in a better place."

I looked at where we were. "How about under a tree?"

I leaned forward and pressed my lips against hers once again. It was a familiar sensation, and I wasn't just saying that because I had done it earlier today. It was familiar because I thought I had done it before. In my world. I thought about that, but it was a dumb decision because my head started hurting.

I pushed Videl away from me quickly and held my head with my hands. "I shouldn't have thought about that. Now I've ruined the kiss!"

"What happened?" she asked. "What did you remember?"

"Just the reason why I feel such a strong connection to you!"

"And what is it?"

"Because I've kissed you before today!" I told her, trying not to collapse on the ground. "Kissing you again made me think about that. In my universe, I think we are...dating."

"Really?" she asked with great curiosity. "Well, that explains why you weren't afraid to kiss me to begin with..."

I tried to say something else, but I was too weak to fight the pain anymore. I gave in and fell down once again. My vision went blurry. Then my vision went black.

...

**_(You know the drill: Somewhere else, in a dark room)_**

"Sir! Sir!"

"Grrrr... What is it now?!"

"Well, um, one of our androids is...gone. We lost his signal."

"What?! What happened?! Who did this?!"

"It's not clear, but it is quite possible that it was the boy. We grabbed what was left of the android, and it looks like the handy-work of someone who knows how to fight."

"What?! Can you at least pull up the footage? That stupid android should have everything documented through his eye cameras!"

"We would do that, but all that's left of him are pieces of his head. The storage for the footage is near where his stomach would be, so that's not exactly possible..."

"I KNOW WHERE HIS STORAGE IS!"

"Sorry, sir."

"But you have at least found part of his head! Where were they?"

"Right where his tracking signal went out. In front of some restaurant."

"Great. Send the androids to explore the area close to there. The boy is probably still somewhere in the vicinity."

"I'm beginning to think he's not worth it..."

"I'm beginning to think _you're_ not worth it either! Shut up, and get back to work!"

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**Yay! Another eventful chapter, wouldn't you say? Thanks for reading! I would also love to see your support by you-know-whating!**

**-TOW**


	6. Chapter 6: Theories

**Hooray! We actually made it to chapter 6! Thank you all so much for all of the wonderful support you have given me! It means so much to me! It really does! :D**

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Chapter 6: Theories

_A blue-haired woman gradually took a deep breath in and out. She was about to say something important. "It's because my dad helped him design it."_

_"What?!" I exclaimed. "But why?!"_

_She shrugged and made a face. "I don't know! I'm not my father! And Dad didn't know that he was helping an evil man! I still don't know why he would think that there's nothing suspicious about designing something that will erase someone's memory though..."_

_"But we still don't know for sure if he'll actually even use it,__" I reminded her._

_"It's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to assumptions like this," she told me. "We need for you to be prepared for anything. He's obviously up to no good, and you cannot rush and try to take him head on immediately! He is going to have you right where he wants you, so you'll have to be extra cautious."_

_I gave her a reassuring grin. "I can handle myself! This'll be no big deal! And with this nifty bracelet you'll give me, even if he does erase my memory, I'll be perfectly fine!"_

_She frowned. "We can only assume that this is what that man is up to, but we won't really know unless you go there for yourself. I don't like it though." She sighed. "Gohan. I'm not sure you should be doing this."_

I woke up from my memory-dream. Where this one had ended, my last one began. I looked around the room I was in. It was dark except for a lamp sitting on one of the dressers that was turned on. I could tell that this was the guest room in Videl's house that I'd been using though. I wondered if she carried me all the way here herself.

I glanced over at the chair that Videl was sitting in from when I had passed out and woken up the last time. She was sitting in it once again. Upon closer examination, I realized that she wasn't just sitting there, but she was actually _sleeping_ there. What time was it anyway?

The clock on the wall said that it was 1:24...am. This was _great_. I stayed unconscious all the way through dinner! Did Videl stay here during that time as well? I looked back over to where she rested and smiled. She was really cute when she was sleeping, and now that I knew that I was dating her, I wasn't afraid to admit that either. Her head was tilted and her face was calm. She had no worries.

I had worries though. I had lots of worries. Why was I a wanted man to begin with? And were they _really_ mistaking me for another me? Because it seemed an awful lot like they really wanted _this_ me. As in _me_ me! They said they erased my memories on purpose. That made me question if there even was another me, and if I was wrong about my theory of another universe all along.

_They wiped my memory though!_ I would never know the truth unless I confronted the man who did this myself! Not that I knew who that was... I really just wanted to run outside and yell for the androids to come find me. Let them take me to their boss! At least I would know what's going on!

_"You cannot rush and try to take him head on..."_ the blue-headed lady's voice echoed through my mind. I groaned. It was good to have another memory without having to try to think about it for myself and hurt my head, but I didn't like hearing this lady's voice in my head, giving me advice like she was my conscience or something. I did get some useful information though.

_Let's see..._ That blue-haired woman was the one who gave me that bracelet. Her dad helped an evil man design something to erase memories. I was warned not to rush in and take him head on.

A thought occurred to me. _If she was warning me about this man who could potentially erase my memory, does that mean that I did exactly what she told me not to do and rushed to take him head on?_ This could easily explain how my memory managed to get erased. _But d__id I not put up a fight?!_

I clenched my fists. There was too much that I still didn't know. But she gave me that bracelet. In my memory, I said that even if he did erase my memory, I would be fine as long as I had the bracelet. What did that even mean?! Earlier Videl and I discussed that maybe it reacted to a trigger of some sort and allowed me to travel to another universe. Maybe we were right, and this was my ticket home.

I sat up from where I was sitting in bed a little bit taller. I leaned over to where Videl peacefully slept and softly tapped her shoulder. I hated to wake her up, but I really needed to talk to her.

All she did was shift a little in the position she was in. I leaned in closer to her and said in a quiet, sing-songy voice, "Vid-_eh-_el! Wake _uh_-up!"

She moved some more and let some air out through her nose. "Hmm?"

"You snooze, you lose!" I taunted her quietly.

"I don't wanna lose," she said sleepily. Then she opened her eyes wide and sat straight up. "I'm sorry, Gohan! I didn't mean to fall asleep! I was watching you to make sure you were okay and then it got really late, and I..."

"Don't worry about it," I told her comfortingly. "I'm fine! You don't need to stay in here with me, you know."

She looked away. "I know. You just really freak me out when your head starts hurting and when you pass out and stuff. I don't want you to die! I've gotten kinda fond of...having you around."

I smiled at her. "I'm not going to die! Hopefully, I'll be able to fix everything real soon. That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Okay," she said. "It's...1:30 in the morning, so this better be good."

I nodded. "It is. You see, I woke up from this memory-dream thing just barely. I also had one of these last time I passed out too, but this one is actually really relevant." I went on to tell her about eveything that happened in the memory.

"I don't know," she said. "I don't know what to tell you. It does sound like you managed to get abducted by that dude earlier though. Were you an idiot and rushed to fight him like the woman specifically told you not to do?"

"Well..." I said, drawing it out. "I guess we'll never really know now, will we? Anyway, I'm not sure where to go from here. I'm half-tempted to let the androids just take me back to their boss."

Videl shook her head violently. "No way! He stole your memories before, what's gonna stop him from doing it again?"

I stopped for a moment to think. "You're right. I need to be prepared. I don't know where to go from here."

"What about the bracelet?" she reminded me.

I placed my hand in my pocket and pulled it out. "What should we do with it? If we're right about it opening up a gateway to another world, then we're also right about it needing a trigger. What's going to trigger it?"

"Earlier you said something about a magnet, right? Maybe it gets triggered by sticking it to something metal," she suggested.

I nodded. "Maybe. Is there any metal around here that a magnet can stick to?"

Videl looked around the room. "Hmm... I don't know about in this room specifically, but I know that our refrigerator will work!"

My face filled up with a wide grin. "Awesome! I'm well-rested now, but I haven't had something to eat in ages!"

She nearly fell out of her chair. "Gohan! Focus! There are more important things than your appetite right now!"

"I was just saying that if we were already going to the fridge, we might as well get something to eat!" I shuffled my way out from under the covers and out of the bed. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Not really," she replied. "You had me so worried for a while, especially when you didn't wake up, that food wasn't my priority."

I felt my tummy rumble desperately. "Well, when I'm worried, food does become my priority! It helps me relax. It's like...meditation...or medication. They sound similar _and_ they both make you feel better!"

She just shook her head and walked over to the door. "You're such a dork! Now come on! Let's go quietly, so we don't wake anyone up!"

We snuck around the house, which was hard enough to navigate with the lights on, but with the lights off, I was amazed that Videl didn't get lost. Not to mention it was extremely creepy... I felt like I was in a horror movie. Skulking around a large house in the dark...something was going to jump out at us at any moment!

Somehow, we managed to make it into the Satans' enormous kitchen and to their fridge. Thankfully, we turned on one of the kitchen lights, so it wasn't as creepy, but everything was still dimly lit. Dim enough that something was surely lurking in the shadows and would jump-scare us any second now...

"Are you going to try to connect the bracelet to the fridge?" Videl asked impatiently as I stood there and did nothing.

I looked over at her. "Yeah...I guess. What if this works? What if I go back to my universe still without most of my memory?!"

She suddenly didn't seem so eager about me placing the bracelet on the fridge. "Well, I guess they'll have to re-educate you about your life."

"I guess so." I tried to procrastinate it a little longer. "But what about the people who are looking for me here? What are they going to do if I'm not even around anymore? What if they come for you?!"

She balled her hands into fists and swung one through the air. "See? I can take care of myself! You saw how I took out that one android! You don't need to worry." She sighed and looked me in my eyes. "It's probably for the better if you go back to your world. Go back to _your_ Videl. She probably needs you more than I do."

She was really tugging on my heart strings right now. I touched her face and rubbed her cheekbone with my thumb, using the hand that wasn't holding the bracelet. "Okay. Just...be careful."

It was the moment of truth. Time to return to my home.

Time to connect the magnet with the fridge.

Time to...procrastinate this as long as I could because, to be frank, I was a little bit scared of whatever was going to happen. I wasn't quite ready to go back home.

"There's something I need to do first," I told Videl as I looked deeply into her eyes, still with my hand on her face. The dim lighting was not so creepy anymore, but romantic instead.

She placed her hand on top of mine and got real quiet. "What is it, Gohan?"

I stepped even closer to her. "I, uh, never ate anything from the fridge like I was planning on!"

She nearly fell over and stepped away from me, with a twitch in her right eye. "_That_ is what you need to do? Eat?!"

I gave a cheesy smile. She was totally expecting something romantic, but I really did just need to eat. I set the bracelet down on one of the counters temporarily and opened the large refrigerator doors, illuminating the room with such a glorious light.

Grabbing as much as I could with both hands, I brought it over to one of the counters and began to dig in. A lot of times I wasn't even sure what I was eating, but anything tasted good at this point. I went back for seconds and thirds and fourths until I was practically scavenging the fridge for food.

Videl looked at me impatiently. "Now that you've drained all of our food supplies, are you going to leave?"

"Aw! Are you really that ready for me to go home?" I asked.

She looked at the ground. "You'd have to go back eventually, so it may as well be now. I don't want to be the one holding you back. This isn't where you belong."

I sighed. "I know. I'll...see you in my world, I guess."

Now it really was time to open the portal to my universe. With a deep breath, and a full stomach, I grabbed the bracelet off of the counter and held it near the fridge. The thing was definitely magnetic because once it was even close to the doors, it was immediately pulled in. And...

Nothing happened.

Videl and I shared a blank look. "Maybe you did it wrong. Let me try."

With a large amount of force, she managed to rip the magnet off of the refrigerator doors and reattached it. Still, nothing happened. The only thing that we had confirmed so far was that the bracelet was definitely magnetic. I wasn't sure what was supposed to happen or why it would be magnetic if it wasn't to return me home.

This time I pulled it back off and looked at it. "Maybe...we've been wrong about all of this. Maybe it doesn't open a portal to an alternate universe. Maybe there isn't even an alternate universe!"

"I've got it!" she suddenly exclaimed, getting an idea. "How about you try putting it on?"

"That's great!" I cheered a little too loudly. I glanced around the kitchen. No one was there thankfully.

I placed my hand through the bracelet. Nothing. I placed my bracelet-hand on the fridge. Nothing again. I tried the same thing, but with my other hand this time. Once again, nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing seemed to work!

"Well..." Videl said. "Looks like that didn't work."

"On the bright side," I told her, "you won't have to say goodbye to me!"

She sighed loudly. "Why would you be given this bracelet that could supposedly help you if it doesn't even do anything?!"

I shrugged my shoulders awkwardly. "I don't know... Wait a minute! I said that it would help me even if he _erases my memory,_ right? So maybe, it's a device that'll help me remember things!"

"WHAT'S ALL THE RUCKUS?!" a man's voice boomed out of nowhere.

Both me and Videl jumped high in the air and let out a shriek. I knew someone was going to pop out of no where! I knew it! _I knew it! _I was still a little scared to turn around and see who it was though.

"Daddy!" Videl suddenly exclaimed. I let out a sigh of relief.

"What's goin' on here, sweetie?" he asked her a little more gently. Not so gently, he added, "And who's the boy?"

I straightened up and walked over to the bushy-haired man. "Hello, sir. My name is Gohan."

"Gohan..." he said slowly. "Why do I know that name...?"

Videl walked up to him and gave him a hug. "Because he is the guy that I told you about earlier! The one I won off of the game show..." He barely seemed to remember. "He's the one who got hurt, and I told you that he was resting in one of our guest bedrooms!"

"Oh! _Him_!" he finally realized. "Well what are you two doin' up so late? Hmm?!"

"He needed a snack, and I had to help him find the kitchen," Videl covered for me. I was glad that she was a good liar because I was not.

"Hmph." The noise he made was somewhat of a grunt. "Fine. Just go back to bed. It's late. And I don't want this injured boy distracting you from your training, okay Videl?"

She nodded slowly. "Yes, Father."

Mr. Satan walked out of the kitchen as us two teenagers exited a different way and climbed the stairs to go to our bedrooms. Before we separated, Videl just stood in front of me and stared, long and hard. I wasn't sure what she was doing, so I stared back.

"I thought that this was going to work," she whispered.

"I guess we were wrong, but I have a new theory now. We can test it out in the morning," I told her.

She folded her arms across her chest anxiously. "Gohan, I...I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'll see you too. Goodnight."

I walked back inside of my bedroom and flopped down on the bed. At least I could get more sleep now. Something burned in the back of my mind. And idea or a memory of some sort. I wanted to think about it, but after I had finally hit the bed, my tiredness was catching up to me again. Any memories about my life could wait until the morning. The _real_ morning.

...

I woke up at 8:30 today, kind of disappointed that didn't have another memory dream. I guess I technically already had one earlier today though, so it shouldn't have been too surprising. After wearing my same old clothes yet another day in a row, I headed downstairs and straight for the kitchen.

I disregarded the fridge because I left it practically empty last night, and I headed straight for the cabinets and the pantry. After eating some dry foods and felt satisfied with my breakfast, I walked over to where I remembered Videl's training room to have been.

I knocked carefully before entering slowly. "Videl? So, um-"

"You're awake. Awesome," she said as she was doing some stretching.

"You don't sound so enthusiastic," I commented. "Did I do something wrong? Are you mad at me?"

She shook her head. "No. Just a little stressed out and anxious about you leaving. That's all. It's okay though, we're working through it, right? Last night you said you had a new theory about the bracelet that you wanted to test out, correct?"

I kind of wished she ran into my embrace and wrapped her arms around me tightly, begging for me to stay. I wished that she would admit to liking my presence more openly, but she didn't today. Earlier she said she had gotten kind of fond of having me around, and that was good enough, I guess.

"Oh, um, yeah," I said a little distractedly. "I have an idea." I couldn't focus on my new theory when she was in a such an odd and distant state of mind. "Do you not want me to stay?" I felt silly asking that, but it had truly been bothering me.

She stretched down to her toes. "Stop acting like a child, Gohan. Of course I want you to stay, but we both know that you don't belong here. The longer you stay, the more I'll get attached to you, and the harder your departure will be on the both of us.

"I want you to stay, but I also want you to go to where you're supposed to be. But if you really think about it, I've only known you for a few days, and you've known me for much longer. While I will admit that I have developed some sort of feelings for you, I think we can both agree that it will be harder for you when you leave leave than it will be for me."

"Oh. Okay," I said softly. "I'm sorry. There's just so much doubt and worry, running through my head right now, that's all."

She sighed and stopped her stretching completely. "I wouldn't know what exactly is running through your head, even if you tried to explain it to me. But I do know this: In your world there is a Videl who cares for you just as much as you do for her. More than I do. I've gone this far in life without you, and although I have enjoyed your company lately more than I'd like to admit, I don't _need_ you like she does."

Her words kind of tore me a part. I didn't know the Videl from that world as much as I knew this Videl at the moment. She was right though. I wouldn't really be losing her once I returned to my timeline/universe. I would simply be returning to her. That needed to be my priorty right now.

"So what was this idea that you came up with?" she asked.

I nodded and pushed aside my feelings for now. _Prioritize_. "Well, I remember from my dream that I said that by having this bracelet, it wouldn't matter if my memories were erased. Doesn't that make it sound like I can get them back? I was thinking that I could use this bracelet by-"

A knock on the door startled me, and Videl groaned. Patrick entered the training room. "Miss Satan, someone is at the front door."

"Have my father deal with it."

"Your father is at a conference right now."

"Of course he is. Fine. I'll go and talk to them." She began to walk out of the room and just as I was trying to follow her, she pushed me back in. In a low voice she whispered, "You're a wanted man right now. We don't know who would recognize you. Maybe it'd be best if I handled this alone."

She exited the room, and although she wanted me to stay behind, I still snuck out and followed her quietly. I hid from whoever was at the door's view and listened to the conversation. I was expecting it to be a salesperson, but this guy definitely wasn't.

"Have you seen this man before?" he asked. Upon better examination from where I was hiding in the distance behind a table, I realized that the "man" was an android, and he was holding up the same wanted poster of me that Videl had.

"That man?" Videl asked slowly. She gave it some time to think about it. I worried that she was going to turn me in. "No. I don't know who that guy is."

I exhaled a ginormous silent sigh of relief, but all too soon because Patirck, who stood next to her, spoke up asking, "Isn't that the injured young man who's staying here?"

She laughed, and I could sense it was filled with nervous energy. "Really? You think that?! I guess I can see the resemblance to my friend. No, that's not him. This guy is a wanted criminal. Why would I be friends with a criminal?"

She didn't seem to have convinced Patrick, but the android was fairly believing. "Okay. If you do see this man, report him immediately. He is an extremely dangerous criminal, and it is in your best interest to keep him off of the streets. It's been rumored that he is somewhere in this vicinty, so keep your eyes open. Goodbye."

Just as he turned around, Videl stopped him and called out, "Wait!" She let out a breath. "You said that this man was dangerous. What exactly did he do?"

The android grunted. "A lot. Horrible things. A young lady like you shouldn't want to know. Now I need to continue the search. Goodbye."

The android man walked away as Videl shut the door. She let out a sigh of relief as I came out from hiding. I gave a sigh of relief of my own. "That was close."

Eyes widened, she nodded slowly. "Too close. Way too close. And you were supposed to stay behind!"

I had completely forgotten about Patrick the butler until he spoke up. "So this young man _is_ who they are searching for?"

The teen girl and I shared a glance, then I tried to give Patrick my best smile. "Yes, but I promise I am not actually a criminal!"

He furrowed his bushy grey brows. "Miss Videl? Is he telling the truth? Who is he really?"

She nervously shuffled her feet a little. "He's a good friend of mine who has been framed for something that he didn't do."

"Didn't you ask the android that crime he had committed? So you do not even know what he's framed for?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then how do you know that he's telling the truth? How can you be certain that he isn't a criminal?"

I had to put all my faith in Videl and that she would know what to say because I was at a loss for words. "You just have to trust me, Patrick. It's kind of complicated, but I believe with all my heart that Gohan is not a criminal!" She took in a deep breath and puffed out her chest a little. "I am the daughter of Hercule Satan! I know what's best for everyone!"

He considered her words for a few moments before deciding what to say next. "Fine. Miss Satan, I'll trust what you say." The words were cold and cut off too short, as if he were forcing himself to say them.

She then dismissed Patrick, and we stood in the entrance by the door together. She sighed. "I hope that we can get everything sorted out soon. This whole situation is stressing me out."

"Me too," I quickly agreed. A new thought suddenly came to mind. "Wait a second! The androids are trying to take me to their boss, right? We don't know who that person is, but you might know what company or corporation or whatever they are tied to, right? Since they supposedly protect the city."

Her face suddenly lit up. "You're right! Why didn't I think of this earlier? The Red Ribbon Army created and controls all of the androids. I thought that they were all about helping keep us safe, but I'm really beginning to question that now."

"Red Ribbon Army," I said aloud. I felt a sense of familiarity, but when I tried to remember specifics, all I got was a headache and a bad feeling in my gut. "They're definitely not good. I...can't remember details, but I have a bad feeling about them."

She made a face as she tried to remember details on her own. "I can't remember who the CEO of the army is, but I know I've heard his name before. That man must be the one issuing all these orders to capture you. He's the person that the android we destroyed is taking you to."

After a moment's silence, she lit up like a lightbulb. "I know someone who might know who he is though! Follow me, I need to make a phone call."

We ran around the house, searching for the nearest phone. Videl found one in an office area nearby. At first we couldn't make a phone call because the line was in use, but it quickly became available again. As if she were trying to meet a deadline, she rushed to punch in a few numbers. "Hi, it's Videl. Is Sharpener there?"

She beckoned me over and put the phone on a table after placing it on speakerphone. A man's voice emanated from the device. "Videl? You finally agreeing to go on that date with me?"

The daughter of the champ rolled her eyes. "No. I actually have a question for you. Is that okay?"

"Go for it."

"You applied for the Red Ribbon Army, right?"

"Yeah, I did. But they turned my application down. Said something about not wanting so many human soldiers..."

"Who is the CEO?"

"Well, a man by the name of Dr. Gero is in charge of everything, so I guess that means it's him. He's really pushing for a transition from humans to androids. He also happens to be the scientist who created them. Do you think that's why he likes them so much?"

As he finished talking, I felt a sense of familiarity from the name of the scientist. "Dr. Gero..." I let the name settle in my mouth as I tried to pull out what I could remember from my brain. It hurt, but something was definitely there.

I tried to search further in my mind, but I was interrupted by Sharpener's voice. "Was that another guy's voice? I don't recognize it! Who is it?"

She glanced over at me. "He's, uh, my cousin."

"I didn't know that you had a cousin."

"We're not all that close. Thanks for your help! Bye!"

"Wait! You never told me why you needed-"

She quickly clicked the phone as she hung up and sighed. Then she saw me holding my temples in pain. "Don't stress yourself out. I know you want to remember, but it's just better if you relax. We don't need you to pass out again! Just think, we're getting closer and closer to the bottom of this. Soon we'll get you back to normal."

I shook my head as I repeated Gero's name in my mind. I could only remember one thing. "I thought that Dr. Gero was dead."

"Maybe he is in your universe, but he could easily still be alive here. Remember?" She placed her arms on my shoulders comfortingly, but we were both really conflicted, and it showed.

I pulled her into a hug and drew in her scent. She always smelled so nice. I know I say this a lot, but she's fighter, so I always half-expect her to smell like sweat. I'm sure that I smell pretty bad whenever I fight or train. But I reminded myself that since she was a girl, it was basically impossible for her to stink.

She unwrapped her arms around me and stepped back. "I'm sorry if I've been a bit cold lately. I just keep reminding myself that I can't get too attached to you. Anyway, are you feeling better now? Your head, I mean?"

I shrugged my shoulders and looked down. Holding her in my arms was nice because it seemed to ease the pain. It brought a sense of familiarity without hurting me. I guess, it mainly distracted me from the pain as the aching died down. In any case, I actually was doing better now.

We walked out of the office, and she guided me through the house until she stopped at the entryway. "What do we do now? Should we try and find Gero?"

"Wait!" I exclaimed. "I never tested out my new theory about the bracelet! We should do that first. I don't really know if it'll work, but hopefully it'll help get my memories back and-"

I was cut off by a knock on the door. We shared a horrified glance then looked out of the glass-windowed door and recognized the man to be the android from earlier. He knocked again impatiently, and she shooed me away. Patrick came running into the room the same time that I hid behind the table from earlier.

"Open up immediately!" he yelled through the door.

Videl quickly flung it opened. "Hello, sir. Did you ever find that criminal you were looking for?"

He smirked. "Actually, yes. I know that you have been hiding your little 'friend' here. I also saw him run off, thanks to this door's window, so don't even try to lie to me."

Videl and Patrick looked at the table that I was hiding behind, and I stood up. I slowly made my way over to the android and felt as if I were walking over to my executioner right before my death. But my head wasn't hurting anymore, and I was feeling decent enough. There was no way I was going down without a fight.

...

**_(Why don't you guess?)_**

"We've got the boy now, sir."

"Great! Stream the live footage."

"Yes sir."

"This is perfect! Just look at how helpless he looks. How fantastic! It took long enough to get to this point though, so this better be worth it after all."

"Um, Dr. Gero, sir?"

"What now?"

"The boy's taking a fighting stance!"

"So?"

"He destroyed the last android, aren't you worried about this one?"

"It's not my favorite model, so I don't mind too much if it gets a little beaten up. But I suppose you're right... Have the others ready to move into that area. We cannot fail this time."

* * *

**Alright! Chapter 6 is completed! The story is sort of coming to a close guys! I told you it was pretty short lol. I hope you all have been enjoying it so far! Sorry for such a late update! :)**

**-TOW**


	7. Chapter 7: System Reboot

**I said the story was coming to a close, but we still do have a few more chapters. This has been so much fun!**

**Prepare yourselves for a HUGE chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 7: System Reboot

Immediately after I had taken my fighting stance, Videl took one of her own. I gave her a nod of reassurance before I threatened the machine-man. "We've taken one of you down before. We'll do it again."

He grinned sadistically. "I can't wait to see how this goes then. Can we go outside for this?"

We followed the android to the front lawn of the Satan property. The wind blew a few stray strands of my hair back. I went back to my fighting stance. "Are you happy? Let's fight."

"Eager to die? Bring it on," he taunted back. "Oh wait. I can't kill you! But I can bring you close to your death!"

I smirked. "Funny. The other guy said sone thing very similar."

"Did he? Well, I'm not 'the other guy,' so I wouldn't underestimate the power of this androi-"

He was cut off by a foot to the face from none other than the lovely Videl Satan. I looked at her incredulously, and she shrugged and said, "His smart-talk was getting annoying."

Extremely grumpily, he sat up from where he had fallen over. "That's not fair! I was about to crush you! You can't just- Oompf!" And another kick from the teen girl ended his sentence again. "That's it! It's my turn now!"

He charged in the direction of Videl, who was not expecting such a quick recovery after the last blow. I ran in front of where she stood and intercepted the punch by blocking it with my arm. It was a bit painful, but it was worth it. I could never bring myself to see Videl get beat up again. _Again...? _I ignored it in order to stay focused.

"Has nobody ever told you to never hit a girl?" I asked him before he could attempt another strike.

He rolled his robotic-looking eyes. "Has nobody ever told you that you're just a scrawny little punk?"

I shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I can't remember anything because my memory got wiped by you guys." Extra loudly, I yelled out, "Thanks Gero! And yes, I do know who you are now!"

The android smirked. "It's about time you figured that one out. Now let's get back to our fight."

I held up a hand to stop him as a question suddenly popped into my mind. "Okay, I know that I was eager to fight earlier, but I was just wondering...how did you even know that I was at the Satans' house?"

"Simple. Someone called it in. It was a brief phone call, but it was all we needed."

Videl and I shared a glance before looking back at the porch. Patrick stood there looking extremely guilty. He must've immediately rushed to the phone before Videl called that Sharpener guy. It didn't surprise me that much though. I had doubted that Patrick trusted me once he found out the whole "criminal" thing, even after Videl tried to say otherwise.

"Never trust a butler..." she muttered, sending one final glare to Patrick. "I'm going to have him fired after this is all over."

After throwing a quick punch to the android's gut, I smiled. "Good." This android was not happy with me, and I did my best to show that I didn't care. "I thought it was time to get back to the fight."

"Stop attacking me when I'm off guard!" he shouted angrily.

"Then stop being off guard!" I taunted in response.

He bore his metal teeth and tried to surprise me with a kick to the legs that would've knocked me down had I not dodged it. He threw a few more punches and I just dodged and blocked them all causally. I was only vaguely aware of my actions. I had no memories of fighting, so I could only rely on my instincts. For now, it seemed to be enough, but I was worried about what would happen if I faced a more challenging foe.

"Videl! Back away!" I shouted as I prepared a ki attack for the android.

He did his best to prepare himself for the impact. At this point, he was doing everything and anything he could to try to male it out of this situation alive. I knew I had won when I saw the fear in his eyes before I had even launched the attack. With a loud shout, I used a large amount of ki and fired a giant blast that would've been extremely difficult to either dodge or block.

After my attack, the only remains of the cruel android were a few pieces of scrap metal here and there. He was blown to bits, and my safety was secured once again. Well, for a little while anyway. It was reasonable to assume that the other androids would be flying in soon. And with a blast like that, I was practically asking for them to find me.

"Videl!" I shouted to the girl in the distance. I told her to move back because of my attack, but I needed her close to me again. "We need to leave this area immediately! Other androids will be coming soon. Your house isn't safe either. We need to just make a run for it as casually as possible, okay?"

She nodded and walked over to me after I spoke. "I still can't believe you can do those things with your energy or whatever it is."

I let out a light laugh as we casually, yet quickly, jogged along the sidewalk. "Neither can I. It's hard to explain, but I guess I've been doing it for so long now, it's become instinctive." I half-wondered how long I had been doing it though. I also worried that my instincts would fail me.

Videl stopped to scan the area ahead of us that we were jogging toward. "I'm not sure where we are going exactly, but I don't think we should continue straight ahead. Does that figure look like an android to you?"

"It looks like there's actually two of them! I don't know if they're androids or not, but I don't want to find out. Let's just turn down that street back over there and hope they don't notice us."

After turning the opposite direction, she nodded and followed me. I turned down a street to the right. Once we were on this new street together, we took a moment to relax. It was hot outside and moving around so much did not help. I wiped some of the sweat off my brow and tried to cool down a little.

With a deep breath out, relieving some of my tension, I turned to face Videl. "At least we're out of those androids' view. Assuming that they were androids. Hopefully they didn't suspect anything of us coming down here."

"Are you kidding me? They never give us a break. My guess is that we're going to have to start running in a few," she said with a scowl.

"Your guess is correct," a young lady with blonde hair said as she dropped down from the sky.

"Or you could try and fight us," a young man with black hair said with a mocking laugh as he dropped down next to the girl. He got a better look at Videl and suddenly stopped laughing. "Wait! You're Videl Satan!"

She seemed surprised that he recognized her, although from what I could tell, she was pretty well known. Maybe it was because the other androids didn't recognize her. "Does that scare you?"

I think she was trying to intimidate him, but he didn't seem very scared. He shared a glance with the blonde woman next to him that I couldn't read, then looked directly at Videl again. "I'm not scared of you at all. I'm just surprised that someone like you would get involved in this mess. I really don't want to hurt your pretty little face."

Videl and I shared an odd look. It was almost as if he was awkwardly flirting with her. She shook it off and stepped forward boldly. "So are you two androids?"

The two began to laugh a little bit, but I didn't know what was so funny. The female gave a small smile after she had stopped her laughter. "Actually, no. We're technically cyborgs."

"Cyborgs?" Videl asked. "What's the difference between a cyborg and an android?"

"Cyborgs are mechanically enhanced _humans_," I explained. "Androids are completely robotic. So these two were once ordinary humans who have been modified to basically mimic what an android is."

The black-haired guy nodded. "Good job, Gohan. Looks like you have remembered a thing or two!" He laughed cruelly, then looked over at Videl, giving her an odd smile. "In any case, Android 18 and I actually do go by android numbers even though we are technically cyborgs."

"Why?"

Android 18 sighed. "The full reason is pretty ridiculous, but to make a long story very short, Gero is an idiot."

"Plus 'Android 17' and 'Android 18' sound much cooler than 'Cyborg 17' and 'Cyborg 18,'" Android 17, chimed in, waggling his eyebrows at Videl.

"Some people might beg to differ," 18 stated blandly, shaking her head his behavior. "Well, we should take Gohan back to Gero before the rest of the androids find us here. Honestly, the old man's requests are getting a little dull, but I certainly don't want the other androids to get the glory of bringing Gohan back."

"But I thought that you just wanted to bring Gohan back so you could 'get to know him' and-"

She jabbed him in the side and became scarily serious. "Can it! I don't know what you're talking about, but if you're implying what I think you're implying, then you can-"

"I wasn't implying anything!"

"That's what I thought."

"Let's just bring them to Gero now," he said, almost a bit grudgingly. He glanced over at Videl. "Do you think he'll want her too?"

She shrugged and shifted her weight. "Probably. The whole 'she knows too much' deal. Gero will probably just force us to kill her or something."

Android 17's face visibly fell, which I thought was a little strange of a reaction for an android...cyborg. "Kill her...? Can't we just-"

"Are you soft on her, 17?"

"No! Not unless you're soft on Gohan!"

The female android gritted her teeth tightly. "I don't know what gave you that idea because I'm not. Let's stop screwing around, and bring the boy with us before the other idiot androids arrive."

I took a fighting stance. "I'm not going to let you take me or Videl to Gero. You can try all you want, but I'll beat you two just like I did with the other androids. I'm not going down without a fight. I don't know what sort of identity crisis you two are going through right now, but it doesn't make a difference to me."

18 smirked as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ears. "Funny. The boy who can't even remember who he is tries to lecture _us_ about an identity crisis."

"It's true that I don't know exactly who I am," I stated firmly, keeping my guard up. "But I do know that I'm about to put an end to this. For now, that's all that matters."

"Are you sure that's all that matters?" Android 17 asked in response to my words. "What if I told you that you are a cyborg too?"

Suddenly the world stopped moving, and I wondered if I had heard him correctly. "I'm- I'm a cyborg?"

18 looked at me as if she expected me to fall over, which at this point, I was coming pretty close to doing. "I don't know if you actually are one yet, but I do know that Gero was at least planning on transforming you into one of us. Part of that process is erasing your memory, and you're obviously at least at that point. 17 and I have been through it too."

As my world had completely shattered, I didn't realize that I'd also dropped my guard, and the androids saw this as their chance for a grand attack. The female kicked my stomach so hard that I fell to my knees in pain. She bent over and grabbed me by the collar with an angry look on her eyes.

"I really don't want to have to harm you," she said in a low voice, so that only I could hear. "But I have to take you back to Gero. I don't want him to put you through all of the things he put us through, but maybe once it's all over we can-" She cut herself off to shake her head. She refocused herself on attacking me.

Just as she was about to follow through with another attack, Videl jumped in the way and took a knee to the stomach that was probably meant for my head. She dropped down beside me and began to cough. "These two seem are much stronger than the others."

"I know," I hissed through gritted teeth. I had only been attacked because I had dropped my guard earlier out of pure shock. "I think I can beat them if I could only remember my fighting experience, and especially if I hadn't dropped my-"

I was cut off when something hit my forehead. It happened all too fast, so I'm not sure if it was a fist or a foot or a knee or what, but it certainly hurt really bad. But I couldn't stay down on the ground any longer, or else they'd keep attacking me while I was still vulnerable. Blood dripped into my eyes from the gash on my head where I had gotten hit.

In this awful state, I still stood up and Videl mimicked this action. I wiped away the blood quickly and took a breath. "I don't know if you're lying about trying to transform me into and android or cyborg or whatever, but I don't care. Whatever Dr. Gero was trying to do to me obviously didn't succeed because I'm right here right now instead of there with him."

I took a fighting stance as Videl took one of her own, once again. The two android-cyborgs gave each other a nod, as if they were reassuring each other that they needed to attack. Android 17 leapt at me and threw a punch, but I quickly blocked. Videl began to fight with Android 18, but I couldn't pay much attention to how she was doing after 17 threw yet another punch.

Moving swiftly, I caught his punch and tried to kick his legs out from underneath him, but he jumped up to dodge. While his legs were in the air, he quickly readjusted himself so that he placed his feet on my chest and sprung himself off of me, escaping my grip. I stumbled back, but I caught my balance as he landed a flip a few yards away.

We both prepared ourselves to go another round, but I got distracted by the sudden sight of Android 18 jumping in the air and yelling as she charged a giant ki blast. As she hovered above the ground, I ran over to Videl, screaming her name and pushing her out of the way just in time. It was too late for me though. I was crushed by the large energy attack.

I was uncertain if I had blacked out or not because the next thing I knew, a shooting pain filled my right arm and I cried out loudly. Android 17 twisted my arm at an uncomfortable angle, with 18 standing right beside him. Videl rushed over to stop him, but 18 quickly put an end to her efforts as she knocked her down to her knees.

_Snap!_ I screamed loudly at the pain in my arm. 18 pulled her counterpart away from me. "That's enough, 17. Stop messing around and claim our property before we have to deal with the rest of the androids. I'll get the girl, you can get him."

I tried to sit up, and I opened my eyes, which I had apparently shut when 18 spoke earlier. As I slowly began to sit up, I watched Android 18 knock Videl down with a blow that could've been deadly. I hoped with all my heart that the girl was strong enough to take it, and that the androids really were sensible enough to let her live.

Compared to the other crelations of Gero's I had seen, the behavior of these two seemed a little strange. They didn't appear to be too thrilled about having to follow these orders from Gero to begin with. Maybe it was because they were technically cyborgs and not androids? But orders were orders after all. Regardless of whatever feelings they seemed to have, we were still just another task to be checked off of their list.

It was only then that I noticed that 17 wasn't in my sight anymore. Something hit me on the head from behind, and I fell forward as my vision went black.

...

When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was how dim the lighting was. The second thing I noticed was that my broken right arm hurt more than my temples did when I would get those awful headaches. I recalled what had happened with the two android-cyborgs, but I couldn't tell where we were now. I only assumed that we had been taken back to Dr. Gero's lab or something.

Ever-so-slowly I sat up and saw that Videl was as lying on the ground next to where I was. For once, _she_ was the unconscious one. The amount of times I had lost my consiousness lately was ridiculous, and in an odd sort of way, it felt nice for someone else to have passed out too.

I scooted my way over to where she sat and used my left arm to check for a pulse. I remembered how hard she had been hit, and I was worried that I had lost her, but I recognized the soft drum of a heartbeat, which meant that she was still alive.

My eyes were adjusting to the low light, and I got a clearer view of how beaten up my girlfriend was. Well, she isn't my girlfriend, but she's the girl who is my girlfriend in another universe. The whole multiple universe thing was still pretty screwy...

In any case, Videl was in an awful and bloodied state. She had scrapes and wounds all over her visible skin that covered her in a sticky, red mess. I wanted to pick her up and hold her in my arms, but there were two reasons why that was not acceptable. The first was that although she admitted to having feelings for me, it was clear that she didn't want to get romantically involved with a man from another universe, and holding her in my arms would've been too romantic of a gesture. The second reason was simply that one of my arms wasn't even physically able to hold her.

It didn't matter that we weren't from the same universe and that she didn't want to get attached to me; I still cared deeply for her. It didn't matter that I had a broken arm; the other still worked perfectly fine. So with my good arm, I picked up her head and placed it in my lap.

She began to stir and slowly opened her eyes. She looked up at me. "Is that you, Gohan? It's dark. Where are we? What happened to those two android people?"

I pushed a piece of her hair that was sticking to some blood out of her face. "I'm not sure where we are, but I suspect that we're in Gero's territory now. The androids must've taken us here."

She slowly began to sit up and looked at my arm with a horrified look on her face. "That looks awful! Does it hurt?"

I finally did what I was trying so hard not to do and looked at my broken arm. It was awkwardly bent and positioned in a way that was hard to look at. "It's broken. Of course it hurts! But I've been able to suck it up so far."

She buried her face in her hands, and I think she may have started crying. "I'm so sorry, Gohan. I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! You were doing so well and probably could've beat them on your own, but I got involved and I distracted you!"

"That doesn't make it your fault!" I told her. "I was already distracted by the fact that they told me that I'm supposed to be a cyborg. Plus, even though I'm pretty sure I have lots of fighting experience, I hardly know what I'm doing because I've lost all those memories. It would've been hard for me to win against them anyway."

Videl lifted her head slowly, and I saw that a few tears had streaked her face. I did my best to wipe them away and offer my comfort as much as I could. Then out of absoultely nowhere, she moved forward and pressed her lips on mine. At first I was too surprised to even make a move, but eventually I kissed her back. Her lips tasted like blood and tears...which, I'm not going to lie, was kind of gross.

Just as suddenly as she had kissed me, she had pulled away. "I shouldn't have kissed you."

"I don't mind. It distracts me from the pain in my arm," I told her. "The taste of your blood and tears isn't my favorite thing, but I do like kissing you."

She laughed a little and shook her head. "I keep telling myself that I can't get to attached to you because you'll be leaving me soon. But I will admit that I really do like kissing you too. And I really do like you, Gohan. I'm just-"

"You don't need to explain," I told her. "I understand. All this mushy gushy stuff is great and all, but we can wait later for that. Right now, we need to figure out what to do." Now it felt like I was the one who was being cold, but we needed to focus on the task at hand.

I scanned the room that we were in clearly for the first time. We were contained in a small box with clear walls. Nothing was around us, on the inside and outside of the box. We shared a glance filled with all sorts of uncertainty. The metallic, magnetic bracelet weighed heavily on my pocket, and I began to form a newer and even better theory than the other one that I was going to test.

"Shall I test my next theory about the bracelet?" I asked her. I searched my pockets for the bracelet. I pulled out the three small beans and my ID as I reached for the magnetic bracelet.

"At least they didn't search your pockets," she commented.

I nodded in agreement. "So in my memory-dream, the lady with blue hair told me that her father helped Gero create a device that erased people's memories, right? And this bracelet is somehow supposed to make everything work out even if my memories are erased. I think that it's supposed to be some sort of tool to help me remember things again.

"My original theory was going to be to put in on and try to remember stuff, and although it seemed closer to home, it still didn't seem to be exactly right. After the androids said the things about me being a cyborg and getting my memory erased, I just came up with a new idea that might seem a little ridiculous, but if I'm right, it'll work."

I managed to transfer the bracelet from inside the palm of my left hand to around my wrist. I was practically praying at this point that this would actually do the trick. I needed to remember now, in this desperate state that I was in, more than anything else.

"If my suspicions are correct, the device that that woman's father and Dr. Gero created to erase people's memories is actually inside my head," I said, feeling a familiar throb in my temples. "Every time I try to remember something, I can't because of the device blocking these 'erased' memories. But they're still there, which is why I can sometimes access them. It just hurts my temples, which I'll bet is where the device is located."

I raised my arm with the bracelet. "I'm betting that this magnet will interfere with the signals from the device in my brain. I'll just hold the bracelet up to my head and hope that it doesn't do any damage. Depending on how much of a cyborg I am already, this could be pretty harmful."

"Do you think this is something that can kill you?" she asked with worry.

It wasn't easy for me to say. "Yes, but that's a risk I'm going to have to take. This idea might be a dud just like the others, but my gut is telling me that it's not."

I slowly brought the bracelet close to my left temple. "Here goes nothing."

The closer I moved it, the more of an attraction I began to feel. There was definitely something in my head that was pulling in the magnet. Thankfully, nothing was ripped out right through my flesh, and the magnet successfully made contact with the strange memory-eraser in my brain. I closed my eyes as everything got very hot and painful.

An image. It was the face of my father. It went by so quickly, I almost wasn't sure how I knew it was him, but I could suddenly remember. He was the strongest and most skilled fighter alive. Everyone would call him Goku, but to me he was just Dad.

Another image. This time it was my mother. She was a beautiful, strong, and independent woman. Her stubbornness often caused her to win any argument that I would have with her. Although she may have been a bit harsh at some points, I knew that she loved me and I loved her.

A third image flashed in my mind. This one was of my father again. He was lying on the ground and was wounded. A man with spiky and really long hair was there too. This was not just an image though, this was a memory. Anger and fear exploded from within me, and I attacked the man with the long hair.

The memory quickly changed. I was with a green man. Piccolo. My dad wasn't here anymore. Another shift. Two men in strange suits, one short one tall. The more and more I regained these memories, the quicker the transitions came. A distant planet. The two androids from earlier. A green creature that I defeated with the help of everyone around me. A pink monster.

I had everything! I had all of my memories! They had all flooded to me quickly, but I now knew everything up to this point, including how I got involved in this mess to begin with.

_It was a sunny day outside, and I was enjoying the Vitamin D on the Capsule Corp property while Bulma made some adjustments to one of their hover-cars. I had only planned on dropping Goten off to play with Trunks and quickly say hello to the Brief family, but somehow I had gotten caught up in a scientific discussion with Bulma. She was impressed with my knowledge, which led to talk about schooling, which then led into an embarrassing conversation about my future with Videl._

_While we were discussing my girlfriend, someone strange also stopped by to make an unexpected visit. "What do you know? I thought I was going to have to ask the Brief family for information about your location, but you are right here in their front yard! How convinient!"_

_Bulma quickly crawled out from underneath the hover-car. "Dr. Gero!"_

_"In person," he said, giving a wrinkly smile. A small metallic object in his hand reflected the sunlight._

_"You're supposed to be dead!" I exclaimed._

_He laughed. "That's true for this universe, but I come from an alternate timeline where I am clearly very much alive."_

_I had experience with multiple timelines between the androids and Trunks, so I knew that this was definitely very much possible. "What do you want with me?"_

_"I need to borrow you for a short little while," he said. Something told me it was not indeed going to be a short little while. "Something went wrong with one of my projects, and I'm afraid that you're the only one who can fix it."_

_"I would never help someone like you," I spat at him._

_His wrinkly face contorted a bit, and he gripped the object he was holding tightly. "Fine. I suspected you wouldn't. But all I'm asking is that you follow me back to my universe to help me with this one litle thing...or else I will release an army of androids upon this entire world."_

_I looked over at Bulma, who didn't seen to believe him. "I don't buy it, Gohan. This guy is probably bluffing about the androids. He's trying to scare you into complying to his wishes, but you don't have to."_

_"You don't believe me?" he asked, beginning to laugh. "I guess I'll dispatch the army and _then_ see what you believe!"_

_I didn't want to find out if the man was bluffing, but I didn't want to help him either. "Can you give me some time to consider it?"_

_Gero seemed a little surprised at my response as well as Bulma. The older man's shock turned into a smile. "Of course. I'll give you exactly 24 hours to make up your mind. After that time, I will return to this spot and you will tell me whether you want to help me with a project, or you will feel the wrath of my androids."_

_He flew away into and through a strange portal in the sky. Once he was gone, the portal closed and Bulma exploded. "What are you thinking?! He's an evil man! You can't just consider his offer!"_

_"I'm not actually considering it," I reassured her. "I think I am going to go, but I'll put a stop to whatever he's up to. It shouldn't be that hard. I just needed a bit of time to prepare."_

_She didn't seem to be very happy with my choice. "Gohan, you're going to have to be careful. I know you want to put an end to his evil plans, but you can't let him get a hold of you. I think I have an idea of why he wants you and you alone."_

_"Why?"_

_"I think he's going to try to turn you into a cyborg for some reason."_

_"How do you know this for sure?"_

_"There was a small device in Dr. Gero's hand that I recognized. In order to turn someone into a cyborg, you have to erase their memory. The device that he was holding is what you have to put into someone's brain to start the process. That's why I think that he's trying to transform you."_

_"Maybe it was for someone else," I said, throwing my ideas out there as well. The thought of me being an android made me sick._

_Bulma sighed and grabbed a wrench before returning to her business under the hover-car that she had been doing before Dr. Gero arrived. "Maybe it was. We won't know for sure until it's too late. If you really want to go through with this, I have a different device that will counteract with the memory-eraser if the worst-case scenario does happen."_

_"What is it?" I asked eagerly. If it would allow me to stop Gero and keep my memories, I was in._

_"It's a bracelet," she told me. "It can replace your Saiyaman watch for now. Once the device in your brain is installed, it will take sometime before all your memories are completely erased. If he does install the memory-eraser, you need to immediately hold this magnetic bracelet up to your head to undo Gero's work. It's still pretty risky though, so do your best to not let him place the device in your brain in the first place."_

_"Don't worry," I said firmly. "I won't let him get a hold of me. But I do have one question. How do you know so much about this device to begin with?"_

_"The bracelet? I designed it myself to undo anything that went wrong with the memory-eraser."_

_I shook my head, but realized that Bulma couldn't see me because she was under the hover-car. "No. I mean Gero's memory erasing device. How do you know so much about that?"_

_"Assuming that it's the same device that it is in this timeline..." She stopped what she was doing and slid out from under the car. She stood up and looked me dead in the eyes. Bulma's face was filled with seriousness as she took a deep breath in and a deep breath out. "It's because my dad helped him design it."_

That scene from my memory was over. That scene was what had led into my memory-dream from last night...or whenever that was. And the one from last night led into my first memory dream that I had since my memory had been erased. Everything connected, and I understood what was going on.

I looked over at Videl who was staking at me strangely. "Gohan? Are you okay? You blanked out for a second."

"A second?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes. "I said a second, but it was more than that. Maybe a minute. It was kind of weird. One moment you were right here with me and then you put that bracelet on your head. You closed your eyes for a few seconds, but then you opened them again. That's when I got really worried. It was like you weren't even here. You just stared at nothing and didn't even seem to be aware of what was going on around you."

I tried to reassure her with a smile. "It's okay, Videl. I remember! I remember everything! It worked!"

Her eyes widened and she nodded excitedly. "That's great! Since we don't really have anything better to do, you may as well fill me in on what's going on."

And so I did. I told her everything that I had just witnessed in my flashback. But I didn't just stop there. I kept going on to tell her what had happened after everything that had taken place in my flashback too. I told her what happened when I followed Gero through the portal to this alternate universe...

...

**_(Do I even need to say? Somewhere else in a dark room.)_**

"My favorite two little androids. I'll admit that lately you guys have been slacking off, but I'm pleased with your success today. You two seem to be the only two beings competent enough to handle such a simple task."

"18 seems to think that you aren't comp-"

"Shut up. We did what Dr. Gero asked of us."

"Correct. The two of you were successful in bringing me the boy. And you brought back the girl too! How considerate!"

"Sir, we were only doing our best to...please you. But I do have one question, doctor."

"What is it, 18?"

"What are your plans for both of then now that they are in your possession?"

"Simple. We pick up where we left off on Gohan. I have a team of people setting up the labs again while the two troublemakers themselves sit in a containment cell. We'll return to our operations on the boy soon, and as for the girl...hmm... She can be disposed of."

* * *

**What a chapter! Who's ready for the next one? Things are getting pretty intense now! I also added my own little (semi-awkward) twist to the 17 and 18 of this universe too lol. ;) Man, I love those two so much.**

**-TOW**


	8. Chapter 8: Tying it All Together

**Here you guys go!**

* * *

Chapter 8: Tying it All Together

I began to tell Videl everything that had happened after my encounter with Bulma and Gero. "So the next day, I went back to Capsule Corp just like I was told to do, without letting anybody know. I didn't even tell you. Bulma handed me a bracelet and three senzu beans. I held onto my school ID just in case."

"Wait," she said, stopping me. "What's a senzu bean?"

Suddenly, I remembered that I had three in my pocket. "It's this!" I exclaimed, pulling two out. I popped one in my mouth and crunched down as I explained what it did. "It's a small little bean, but it has the ability to heal all of your wounds! You look like you need one too. Eat it!" I tossed her the other one that I was holding, and she cautiously placed it in her mouth. Now I only had one left.

Energy coursed through my veins. My broken arm stopped throbbing and went back to it's normal position. I wriggled it around a little bit, and Videl let out a shriek. "It's- It's perfectly fine! Amazing! Just from that little bean?" She looked at her own wounds, which had healed just as well.

"Yep!" I told her. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to my story. As I was saying, I collected those things from Bulma before Gero made his second appearance. I told him that I was ready to go with him as long as he promised not to unleash the androids. He didn't know that I had plans to sabotage him."

"And did you sabotage him? Because it doesn't seem like it," she said quickly.

I smiled as I noticed her eagerness to find out the full story. "I'm getting there! Anyway, I followed him through this strange portal thing that was opened in the sky above us. Once we crossed through it he told me that this was his laboratory and this was his timeline. I just nodded and went along with it. Bulma didn't want me to rush and attack too quickly, or something might go wrong. So I tried to wait for just the right moment.

"He walked me around, showing me some of his model androids and other weird things, which led up to the big reveal. He needed me to _be_ his next project. Bulma and I had already suspected this of course, but I went along with it and pretended like I had no idea. That's when I decided to turn on him and make my attack.

"He quickly whipped out a strange looking box and the next thing I knew, some sort of strange rope-material was wrapped around my torso and it tied my arms to my sides. I struggled to break free, but I then became overwhelmed by Androids 17 and 18 suddenly shoving me on to an operating table.

"'I know you want to struggle,' he said. 'So feel free and try, but it isn't going to get you anywhere.' He then tied something else around my body that was identical to the strange rope-like material already around me, which made it so that I was now attached to the table.

"'Everything you do is futile. I made this material by dissecting the DNA of a Saiyan very, very similar to you my boy. We've lost him now, but our efforts were not wasted when I was able to create what I like to call Anti-Saiyan Rope.'"

Videl seemed very confused. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to interrupt again, but what's a Saiyan?"

I had forgotten that this Videl was not the same one from the universe that I was from. _This Videl has no clue what a Saiyan is! _"That is another long and complicated story, so for the sake of simplicity, I'll sum it up. My dad is from a nearly-extinct alien race and was sent to Earth as a baby. To make this extremely long story very short, my dad met my mom and they had me, a half-Saiyan. Us Saiyans are very strong and we're excellent fighters plus a whole lot of other weird things, but for now that's all you need to know.

"Anyway, the next thing I know, Gero is putting me under some sort of gas so that he can operate on me. He tells me that I need to stay conscious for this procedure on my brain, but the gas will help me so I don't feel anything, and I won't try to struggle. All I can do is listen to everything he says. I can't even talk back to him.

"So he tells me why I am needed to be his next project. In his world, the one that we are in right now, he found a strong young man by the name of Gohan. I guess certain events happened differently in this timeline, but the bottom line is that he knew that Gohan would be the perfect subject to become his next cyborg. He was already naturally strong and fast and intelligent. The only problem was that he was good-natured and didn't want to participate in Gero's experiment.

"With the help of the androids, Gero was eventually able to operate on Gohan. He started off with the operation that he was in the processing of performing on me when he spoke. He erased his memory. Without any memories, Gohan was under Gero's control. He continued the process of his transformation into an android-cyborg until something went wrong. Dr. Gero messed up and accidentally incorrectly wired Gohan, which caused my counterpart to turn on the doctor.

"Gohan escaped from the lab and went out into the city, doing his best to hide. But Gero said that they found him almost immediately due to the tracking software installed within him. Gohan was brought back to the lab and Gero would need to re-wire him to make him obey the doctor's every command. But Gero was frustrated with Gohan's behavior from earlier and messed up once again, ultimately killing his subject, who was going to be the perfect soldier for his army."

"'This is when I came up with the idea of traveling to an alternate universe to find you,' he explained as he worked. I was still forced to listen to every word he said. He needed me to replace the other Gohan. The only problem was, was that even though we are the same person technically, different events in the different universes still changed who we were. I am _not_ the same Gohan that he wanted."

I took a second to let my voice rest from speaking, and Videl used this as an opportunity to ask another question. "If he erased your memory and you clearly didn't immediately use the bracelet to keep from losing your memory, how did you end up on the game show with me?"

Glancing around the strange box-of-a-room that we were in, I continued the story. "Gero gave someone else the tools to finish installing the device into my brain. That person sealed everything up nice and neatly, I guess, because there aren't even any marks on my head. Bulma was right about the device that they installed, of course. It didn't immediately erase everything all at once, but memories did slowly begin to slip away as I fell into a painful and disoriented state.

"Dr. Gero had left the room when the other guy took over, by the way. The other guy undid the ropes and left me in that room full of guards, probably expecting me to go from my disoriented condition straight into compliance to Gero. I'm not sure why he thought this, but I'm assuming it's because the other Gohan did immediately get controlled by Gero. But as I said earlier, I am different than the other Gohan.

"My head was filled with pain, and I felt everything slowly slipping away from me. I had no idea what I needed to do other than to get out of that place and find somewhere to hide, at least until the pain had passed. When I tried to escape the room, the guards tried to stop me, but in one quick frantic move I blasted everything, knocking out the guards and blowing the defense systems to bits.

"I rushed out of the room and through some halls. I had no idea where I was or where I was going, but I knew I needed to get out before someone else could find me and try to take me back. But the more I ran on, the more I was losing it all. I grew more and more frustrated and my decisions became more and more rash. Any obstacle that I encountered, I would just blow it up and out of my way.

"Somehow I stumbled into a lower level of Gero's building. I think the Red Ribbon Army must have sponsored your game show because the two places are connected for some reason."

Videl's face lit up. "That's right! They dis sponser it, now that I think about it! I didn't even realize it at the time, but there were Red Ribbon symbols all over the studio!"

It was just as I had suspected. I nodded as the rest of the details fell into place. "So you can figure out what happened next. I fumbled into hiding, AKA, behind door 3 of the game show you were on. Someone else was already there. At the time I was a mess and hardly in control of my actions, but I think I actually knocked him out and pushed him somewhere else. I don't know why I didn't just try hiding in another location, but like I said, I couldn't think clearly."

"I wonder whatever happened to that poor man you kicked off the show," Videl thought aloud. I shrugged a response.

Then I furrowed my brows as I remembered a few more painful details. "So I stood in this empty, small and dark space as I tried to recall something urgent I needed to do. But it was too late because I had lost it all, and I guess I blacked out or something. The next thing I knew, I woke up in that same tight, dark area I had scrambled into to quickly hide in. It's a miracle that they didn't find me. And...the rest is history."

The strange room that we were in was filled with an eerie silence. Neither of us had anything else to say for the longest time. She examined my newly healed arm as if she were making sure it was still okay. She then touched my face as if she were checking that I was real. She looked down at the ground we were sitting on as if she didn't know what to do.

Very quickly, Videl stood up and walked away from me. "All of this happened... I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," I said, standing up and walking toward her. "I'm the one who should be sorry that I've involved you in this giant mess, and I am. But I also want to thank you for your help. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to make it this far."

"I don't want you to leave!" she suddenly exclaimed, rushing into my arms. I was surprised, but I held onto her anyway. "I don't want them to take you away from me! I don't want them to turn you into an android thing! I don't even want you to have to return to your own universe! I just want you here with me!"

I let out a sigh as I stroked her long, black hair. "I am here with you right now. But you know that I'm going to have to leave soon. I don't belong here. You've said this before yourself."

She pulled herself out of my embrace. "I know. Everything's just happened so quickly. It's one thing after another, and I can hardly keep up. I just wish things were simple, like when we went out for lunch, and I was jealous of the waitress who was flirting with you."

"So you admit that you were jealous!"

"I guess so," she said with a small smile. "My life is never going to be the same now."

"Correct," the recognizable voice of Android 17 said as he walked into the room with his sister. "Your life will not be the same because it will be over. Gero has definitely decided for you to die."

It was a familiar scene. Us versus them. Videl and I took our fighting stances and readied ourselves to end the conflict with these androids once and for all. This time I was prepared. I wasn't distracted. I had a perfect memory of all my previous fights. And I knew that these two would not be a problem at all.

"Easy there, Gohan," 17 said with a weird sort of smile. "You too, Miss Satan. We're not looking for a fight. We're simply trying to bring you guys to...different places where we can set things straight once and for all."

"No," I told him, practically spitting. "If you want to set things straight, we do it right here, right now. Unless you have some better explanation as to why I should go with you. I mean, you even just admitted that you'd be killing Videl!"

18 seemed a bit bored. "A better explanation? Not really. One of you was going to come with me and the other was going to go with him. Gohan, you are going to finish your operation and she is going to be, as Dr. Gero so elegantly put it, 'disposed.'"

Android 17 almost seemed a bit betrayed by his sister's words. "Come on, 18! You always take the fun out of everything! Finishing the operation was supposed to be our...surprise."

"Really? They already knew about it. There was no surprise. Just get the boy, and I'll get the girl," the blonde stated.

"Can I get Videl instead?" 17 asked, eyeing the teenager in a way that made me uncomfortable. "You're so pretty, it sure is a shame that you had to get involved with that awful boy Gohan because now I have to kill you. Don't worry though. I'll be sure to do it as quick and painless as I can."

18 rolled her stony blue eyes. "Are you really trying to flirt with her right now?"

"Flir- What? Me? No way!" he tried to quickly cover. "How was that flirting?"

"Becaue I know you," she answered. "I know that you are just as terrible of a flirt as you are a liar."

The android's cheeks actually seemed to turn a little red. "Well...you were the one who got all excited earlier because you could see Gohan again! You even admitted that he was cuter than the last one!"

Now the other android's cheeks were heating up. "It doesn't matter. You're still going to have to kill Videl!"

Android 17 glanced over at my girlfriend. "Or maybe I can smuggle her out of this situation." Then he winked.

"Gross," Videl blatantly told him. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Fine. Have it your way...the dead way."

"Are you trying to be dramatic?" 18 asked, placing a hand on her hip.

"What? No!"

"'The dead way'. That's so stupid!"

"It's not that stupid! It sounds..."

"Like you're trying too hard to be dramatic?"

"It does not!" he protested. Then he looked over at Videl. "What do you say, my love?"

She still held herself in a stance, and I sort of thought that she was going to attack him. "I say, that you're gross. I don't want to go anywhere with you!"

Android 17 gave a smirk of a grin. "I never said that you needed to _want_ to go with me. I mean, you've already made your choice. The dead way."

18 then opened her mouth to say something, but 17 stopped her before she could speak. "Shut it, sis."

Out of nowhere, 17 jumped forward and scooped Videl in his arms bridal style, causing the teen girl to let out a shriek. His movement had been fast, but I still followed. He smiled down at her. "Are you sure that you don't want me to try to sneak you out alive? I mean, I could carry you like this on our wedding day."

Videl was not going to put up with it anymore. She thrashed and struggled in his grip, but he didn't seem to loosen up at all. She even began to slap him! At first it was just once, but after he didn't even flinch, she did it again then again and again. Each time, he showed no signs of putting her down though.

"What about you, Gohan?" 18 asked as Videl and 17 were involved with their issues still. "Would you like to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

"See?" 17 said with punches and kicks from the girl in his arms. "Now _you're_ being dramatic!"

18 rolled her eyes, and I stayed on guard as I tried to determine whether or not now was a good time to strike. My thoughts were interrupted by Android 17. "Okay, 18. Looks like you've got everything under control. I'll be taking this fine young lady with me to lead her to her death."

"Oh no you don't!" I said, running toward him for an attack. I kicked him down and Videl fell out of his arms, hitting the ground just as hard as Android 17 did. "Sorry, Videl!"

"It's fine," she muttered as she stood up and brushed herself off.

The android man stood up and rushed to her side, pretending that he actually cared. And in a weird way, it seemed like he kind of did. "Geez, Gohan! You could have really hurt her! Are you okay, Videl?"

"As if you really care!" I spat at him. "Moments ago, you just casually stated that you were going to lead her to her death!"

He frowned and crossed his arms. "I was going to be gentle!"

"I'm not going to let you take her!" I firmly told him.

Android 17 tried to rush and swoop Videl back up in his arms again with one extremely fast movement, but I knew just what he was doing and I would be faster. I rushed up in front of Videl before 17 could get there, and I knocked him down once he stopped in front of me.

"You're pretty fast," he commented as he picked himself up, unscathed. "I'd even say you were faster than the other Gohan."

"How do you know just how fast he was?" I asked out of curiosity.

He grinned with mischief in his eyes. "I'm not sure what you know, but that Gohan escaped at one point. When he escaped, it shouldn't have been too hard to find him because of the tracking device, but there were some complications. It took a couple of weeks to track him, and we even had to put up wanted posters."

I was surprised to hear this. "Dr. Gero told me that it wasn't hard to find him because of the tracking device, yet you said there were complications." I glanced over at Android 18, who had began walking towards me. I prepared myself for any sudden attack that she might make.

"He must've stretched the truth," 18 stated. "That man doesn't like to admit his failures, but as you can probably tell, they happen quite often."

17 nodded in agreement with that statement. "In any case, the reason I knew how fast he was, was because I watched as he attempted to run away while he was being recaptured, but it was all futile. Care to guess who brought him back?"

I tensed up a little bit. "It was you guys."

"Good job, Gohan," Android 17 said condescendingly. "Your man is pretty smart, isn't he, 18?" He laughed as if he made some sort of funny joke.

She rolled her eyes and shoved him lightly. "I said that he was cute. That was it! I'm not head-over-heels for him or anything, unlike how you are for Videl."

He shoved her back. "I am not!"

"Yes you are!" _Punch._

"I'm only saying that we'd be a good couple, don't you think?" _Kick._

"You won't be a good couple if she's dead." _Blast._

"Maybe I wasn't planning on killing her at all!" he exclaimed, ending their short squabble. I was somehwhat disappointed because I half-hoped they were going to knock each other out. "Maybe I wasn't just joking about my offer to sneak her out of here alive!"

The room was filled with silence. The two androids stared at each other as if they were having some sort of silent conversation. Videl moved in closer to me and opened her mouth. I waited for her to speak, but no words came. The next thing I knew, we were staring at each other just like the two androids were.

"Have you really gotten that soft?" Android 18 asked her brother.

I began to watch their scene play out. He looked at her dead in the eyes. "Have you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" she countered.

"'Dear Diary,'" he recited in falsetto, causing 18 to visibly fill with anger. "'Dr. Gero is going to be experiementing on human subjects again. Even though Gohan died, he was able to find a new Gohan to replace him. I like this Gohan a lot more though. They seem very similar from what I could tell, but there are subtle differences. This one doesn't have a strange scar on his nose.' Or something like that, am I right?"

"That's _not_ what I sound like, and that's not what it said!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe you read my diary! How much did you read?"

He smirked and narrowed his eyes. "Enough of it. 'I worry for the new Gohan's safety. I only saw him briefly during part of the operation, but I find him _very_ attractive. I don't think that what Gero is doing is fair to the boy, and I've seen it go wrong too many times. Maybe-'"

"STOP IT!" she shouted, fuming. "You're adding things in! I didn't even say most of that! I mean, you have no right to-"

"You are turning against Dr. Gero!" he argued. "You're not loyal!"

"You were going to disobey his orders and let the girl live! You're not loyal!"

"I bet you weren't even going to take Gohan back to Gero! You were going to-"

Videl stepped forward, interjecting herself in this strange argument. "Hey guys! Here's an idea, how about you team up with us and fight against Gero, since you both obviously don't like him?"

18 let out a huff and eyed Videl with a frustrated expression on her face. "Stay out of this."

"But that doesn't mean that you can't still come home with me." 17 winked at my girlfriend, and I felt so uncomfortable on her behalf.

The blonde android rolled her eyes, something that she seemed to do a lot. "Moron, this _is_ our home! We live here!"

He glared at his sister. "I know. I was trying to be funny."

"Well, it didn't come across that way," Android 18 explained. "I'm ashamed to be you sister."

"I'm ashamed to be your brother."

"I'm going to tell Dr. Gero that you were going to disobey him!"

"Not if I tell him that you were first!"

The door to the room suddenly flung open and everyone's attention was turned to a wrinkly man with white hair and an evil air about him. "Don't worry. None of those things will be necessary."

"We're both very loyal to you," 18 tried to quickly cover for them.

He stepped forward menacingly. "Really? Because that's not what I gathered from the conversation. I've been observing you. I had so much trust in the two of you. I wondered why you'd been slacking off lately. Now I doubt everything. I can't believe that you guys would turn on me like this!"

17 quit his goofball charade and did his best to show respect. "We're not turning on you, sir! We just-"

"Not turning on me?!" he exclaimed incredulously. "That's funny! Because it sounded to me like you were disobeying my orders just for some pretty girl! And you, young lady." He stopped as he faced 18. "You clearly are considering full rebellion. By not agreeing with what I'm doing, I know for a fact that I don't even have your loyalty."

"You do have our loyalty, sir." 17 seemed very antsy and anxious. He clearly did not want to get on this man's bad side.

"Then prove it," Gero spat. "Start by killing the girl."

Videl stepped back a few paces and 17 stepped towards her. I genuinely think that he didn't want to harm her because he looked so pain-stricken at that moment. "Come with me. I'll take you somewhere where you'll have a painless death..."

"No," Gero said. "That won't cut it. I need for you to kill her. Right here, right now."

Videl put up her guard as the male android began to slowly prepare for his attack. A ki orb of some sort formed in his hand, which he raised slowly. The poor girl had no idea how to block the attack. I knew that I was going to have to jump in and save her.

But...the orb in 17's hand faded and the room dimmed down. He lowered his arm and turned to look back at the doctor. "I can't do it. I can't hurt her. For some reason recently, I've been struggling internally and-"

"For some reason recently?!" the old man exclaimed. "Are you kidding me?! You are a traitor! She's just one pathetic girl! You don't even know her!"

"But I _do_ know her," he said semi-quietly. "She's Videl Satan. I've seen her fight in matches on TV and she was so..."

"We're getting rid of your TV," Dr. Gero said next. "This is getting out of hand. You should be able to obey my orders instantly. It shouldn't matter how you 'feel.'"

Android 18 stepped up...or at least attempted to. "I'll do it. I'll kill her. I can prove to you that I am loyal after all."

"Oh no," he said, turning to face her now. "That wouldn't work. She's your 'competition'. She's interested in the boy and so are you. It wouldn't be that hard to kill her. I want you to kill the boy."

The color in her face drained and she looked at me. Even she seemed to feel a little guilty. I was surprised to realize that maybe these two genuinely _were_ concerned for us. But she seemed more determined to prove her worthiness than her brother. She held herself in a fighting stance, and I prepared to counter anything that she did.

I waited for her to make the first move, but she hesitated before forming a ki attack in the palm of her hand. I prepared to deflect it, but she never threw it. She just stood there, torn apart by the decision to follow Gero's instructions or her brother's example.

"Why should I fight him?" she asked. "He's going to be one of us. I don't want to destroy your 'prefect android,' right?"

He gritted his teeth and looked at the ceiling above. "Fight him because I need you to bring him to the point where I can control him! You have to do this so that he can become one of us!"

"Control him?" Android 17 asked. "Control him like you've been controlling us? Turning us on and off whenever it's been convivent? Giving us orders as if we were mindless android-zombies?"

"I cannot believe what has gotten into you two! Do you see what your feelings have done to you? You're thinking about yourselves too much!" Dr. Gero told him.

17 shook his head and stepped forward closer to the scientist. "Oh no. I'm thinking of everyone but myself. I'm thinking about saving this girl's life instead of ending it for no good reason. It's true that I am, you could say, attracted to her, and I have these 'feelings,' but I think that's what you don't understand about us cyborgs. We'll never be completely in your control because beneath all of these modifications, we're still human."

His sister nodded in agreement. For once they were working together instead of arguing. "This is what you get for turning us into machines designed to do your bidding. We're rebelling because we have hearts, and we actually use them. Why do you think it's been so hard to control Gohan, Gero?"

"Why do you think it's so hard to control us?" the dark-haired twin added.

"Because you can't," 18 finished. "We're too unpredictable. We feel and think too much for our own good. When you use humans, this is something that you will never avoid."

The ki orb that Android 18 was going to use on me earlier, grew three times as big. 17 formed one just as large as she did in his palm. The two turned their attention to the nervous-looking scientist. Gero suddenly reached into his pocket and clumsily pulled out a device that seemed to be similar to the one Bulma had designed to shut the androids down in my timeline. Although...I never actually saw it, so this was based on the others' description of the remote.

"I WILL ALWAYS HAVE CONTROL!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. In one quick move the androids fired their ki attacks just as Gero pressed the button. The man dove out of the way, dropping the remote and barely missed getting hit.

The two androids' systems shut down, and they appeared as if they had fallen asleep. This really sucked because I was hoping they would take out Gero for me, and I wouldn't need to do anything. However, life was never simple enough to where the problems would just magically "get fixed," which meant that I still had some responsibility in this matter too. I was confident that I could take him down now though.

"I won't let you control me either," I told him firmly. "And I'm not an android or a cyborg or anything of that sorts, so you can't just shut me down. This time, you'll get a fight."

Dr. Gero straightened himself out and brushed himself off, surprisngly confident after my bold threat. "All I've learned so far is that my cyborg initiative program has proven to be a failure. The main issues with this program would fall on the test subjects and not me, of course, but I still don't think I'll be trying this one again. If I don't succeed with you this time, then I guess I'll have to-"

"I'm not going to give you another chance," I said darkly. Videl shrunk away from this fight. I was not going to be afraid to give it my all, so I was glad she stayed where she could be relatively safe. At this point, she would only interfere.

"I don't need one more chance from you. You get one more chance with me." He didn't cower in fear like I wished he did, but instead smirked at me, and I worried what he could possibly have up his sleeve now. "You see, I wouldn't think so high and mighty of yourself yet because you're forgetting one thing, Gohan."

_Whoosh. _I didn't know if he had pressed a button or mentally signaled for something or how it had worked, but I was suddenly tightly tangled inside a familiar rope. I struggled and struggled, but it did not want to loosen. I tried everything, but it was as if it were blocking my ki and strength. Between the androids getting shut down, and the rope that he bound me with, it was beginning to seem as if he actually did have control.

"I still have the anti-Saiyan ropes. You are bound to me until the day you die. Any and all struggling is futile."

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**Oh no! Gohan's trapped in those terrible ropes! That's how they were able to perform the first operation to clear his memory! What's gonna happen? Only one more full chapter!**

**-TOW**


	9. Chapter 9: Consequences

**I totally forgot that it was Wednesday today, so I'm sorry that I haven't replied to your reviews or responded to PMs or have been very active. Also, because I forgot, there might be some extra errors in this chapter (I didn't get to edit it as much as I would've liked to).**

* * *

Chapter 9: Consequences

Dr. Gero sighed and looked over at his two "star-pupil" android-cyborgs. "I can't believe these two. They've been acting up lately, but it's never been anywhere near this extreme. I'll just have to readjust their chips again..." He turned to face me as I continued to struggle. "Only after I take care of you, of course. If this fails again, I'm going to completely trash this whole experiment."

I think I may actually have started to loosen the ropes a little. Maybe my struggling was working! If I could just wriggle my wrists out of here, then maybe I could completely free the rest of me.

Gero smiled menacingly as he looked down on me. "Oh? You're freeing yourself up a bit? Clever boy. Well, I know how to fix that."

His arm reached out behind him and the door leading into this room burst open. Nobody was there though. Suddenly a chair came flying into the palm of his outstretched hand. The door slammed behind him, a creepy grin filling his leathery face.

I noticed through my peripheral vision that Videl was beginning to creep over closer to where I was, but she was making such subtle movements that Gero didn't seem to notice. He was very fascinated with me and his little chair maneuver, and I didn't even want to give him the chance to blink in her direction.

"How did you do that? With the door and the chair?" I asked, stalling time for Videl to do whatever she was trying.

He looked back at the door then down at his hand, which was holding the chair. "Anything is possible with the right...modifications." I didn't want to even know the details of that. "Let's get you situated in this chair, okay? You're getting too close to struggling your way out of those ropes for my comfort."

The chair was immediately slammed into the ground and with a quick push, I was then shoved into the chair. I looked around for another android as another set of ropes were tightly wound around me. But all the movement seemed to come from Dr. Gero. Perhaps in this universe he wasn't fully human either. I wouldn't doubt it with his talk of "modifications."

He then tugged on the Anti-Saiyan rope a little too tight for my liking. I felt my chest tighten as it almost seemed like a boa constrictor was wrapping itself around me. "Tight! Tight!" was all I could manage to say.

"Tight?" he asked innocently. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you wanted it tighter!" He laughed cruelly and tugged on one of the ropes even harder. Now it was _really_ constricting me. I even feared he would cut off my circulation, or possibly my oxygen.

Whatever plans Videl had of sneaking around in the background fell through as soon as she shrieked. "You're hurting him! You're hurting him! Can't you loosen it a little?!"

He looked over at her as if he were surprised that she spoke up. "How rude of me to forget about you, Miss Satan. Would you like to have a seat too?"

She shook her head as she stepped up beside me. "You seem to know who I am, which means that you probably know who you're messing with. Free Gohan now or I swear that I will-"

"Videl," I managed to breathe out. I struggled in the ropes' tight grip, but managed to find the space I needed for speaking. "I know what you're capable of in my timeline, and I'm sure that it's a similar situation here. You're a tough girl without a doubt, but please stay out of this. I don't want anything to happen to you."

Videl balled her hands into two tight fists. "Oh yeah? Do you remember what happened last time when you told me not to help? You needed my help! This old man is no big threat. Sure he has a few tricks up his sleeve, but don't we all? I'll give him a good fight. Just you watch!"

She was just as stubborn as her father. And just like her father, the words she spoke seemed to be more of an attempt to convince herself to fight more than convincing anyone else.

I sighed and felt the ropes tighten again. "Videl-"

"Your little girlfriend seems very eager to die," Dr. Gero commented. "And if that's how she wants it, then I say, let the girl have her death wish!" His hands began to flow brightly with two ki orbs forming in his palms.

"DON'T DO IT!" I screamed at him with all my might. "She doesn't know what she's asking for! She's-" I looked over at the girl whose brow was furrowed in complete concentration. "She's not who you want. Your battle is with me."

The man looked at me and laughed. "You? You?! You're in no condition to fight! Look at where you are now! Just look!"

I yelled out loudly in frustration as I struggled under the Anti-Saiyan ropes. This Gero must be more of a madman than the Gero in my timeline was. The ropes did not budge all throughout the course of my last attempt to break free. I wanted to give up, and I let my head slump forward.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked, examining the cold, hard floor. "What's the point in all of this torture and pain just to turn me into a cyborg? Why do you need a cyborg? Why do you need androids?!"

"Because..." he drew out the word. I almost got mad at him for answering the question at that, but he eventually continued the phrase. "Because I want world domination, isn't it obvious? With these androids already, this area alone is almost compeltely in my control. With the success-" He glared at the sleeping android-cyborgs. "Or at least what _was_ the success of those two mechanically modified humans, I wanted to experiment some more. And you, my boy, were the perfect candidate."

"But you're plans are beginning to fall through," Videl boldly taunted.

He glared at my girlfriend. "Are they though? The twins may have rebelled, but this is only slightly larger than some of the mistakes they've made in the past. They aren't yet perfected, but they are clearly still under my control. And as for Gohan...can we just take a moment to determine who's handling the ropes?" He let one ki orb die out so that he could grasp onto one end of a rope. "Literally."

The doctor dropped my rope and began to pace around a bit, still holding onto the one ki orb. "I'm at a loss for what to do... I could begin the procedure right now and exterminate the girl later..." An evil glint met his eyes. "Or I could kill the girl now and watch you squirm because you can't do a thing. Yes, I think I like the latter."

"NO!" I screamed as his ki orb grew twice its original size. "DON'T YOU DARE!"

Videl's confidence began to wane as she realized that the large energy ball was for real, and was not in fact just some sort of trick. "Gohan...?" She was nervous. She didn't know what to do, and unlike the twin androids, Gero was not going to let her off easy.

Although he claimed that struggling was futile, I did not give up. My wriggling around in the little space that I could create grew more and more frantic as I feared for Videl's safety. I tried to allow pure energy to course through my body and burst the ropes apart, but they refused to give way. _These darn Anti-Saiyan ropes..._

But who was Gero to know a Saiyan anyway?! Who _was_ he?! He claimed he used the DNA from the Gohan of this universe, but how much could he really understand about Saiyan DNA. The events in this timeline obviously proved very different than of my own, so I doubt he knew what a Saiyan was truly capable of. Even if that Saiyan was only a half-Saiyan.

I felt like I was channeling my inner Vegeta honestly, but I kind of needed to in order to get the strength and the power I needed to break free. I felt the warm energy fill my body as a familiar glowing sensation began to take place. It had been a while, and it wasn't so easy for me to do anymore, but I could show Dr. Gero what it really meant to be a Saiyan.

But the ropes binding me to the chair were too restricting, and I couldn't quite muster up the strength or energy to become a Super Saiyan like I wanted to. And it was too late now...

The wrinkly scientist launched his large ki blast toward Videl, and I could do nothing to push her out of its course this time. I shouted her name, but it did nothing. She had already begun to run out of its way, but Gero had calculated for this to happen and changed the trajectory of the blast. She couldn't have even dodged!

"VIDEL!" I screamed once more as the female in her late teens fell to the floor with no sign of life. "VIDEL!"

"At least she's finally out of the way now," Gero commented. "You know, Gohan, I was getting a lab set up for your procedure, but you had to complicate things. Now they'll have to bring all the equipment down here."

I was in a frantic and emotional state. I hardly processed anything that Gero had said. My thoughts were turned completely to Videl. It was true that the Videl of this timeline was not the one I was most acquainted with, but it didn't change the fact that she was still Videl. And I love Videl! Seeing my girlfriend on the ground in a pitiful, and most likely dead state wrecked me. I wanted no more but to make the doctor pay for _everything_ that he had done.

The motivation, the anger, the hatred, the frustation. There was no time for any of this to fester inside me for long. I quickly exploded into a raging fire that wasn't afraid to burn down the whole facility if it meant justice. Seeing Videl motionless, lifeless, and beaten up on the floor gave me the extra push that I needed to erupt into my Super Saiyan state. It had been so long since I've powered up like this.

It was believed (even by me for a little while) that I couldn't become a Super Saiyan anymore because of my mystic powers. That wasn't true; it just wasn't as effective. But today, right now, I needed the raw energy that came from this transformation.

I let the heat settle in my bones as I glowed steadily; the signature of a Super Saiyan. I felt my hair rise with a radiant light as my emotions began to peak. Pure energy began to course through my veins, giving me more power. This newly focused energy was something that I've always had inside of me, but once I set it free, it shows no mercy.

The ropes that wrapped around my body broke. The ropes binding me to the chair broke. I was free. I was free and I was going to give Gero a little sampling of just how little he understood about my race. Oh, how Vegeta would be proud. My father probably wouldn't, but at this point, I didn't care. Gero deserved everything that he had coming for him.

"You broke my Anti-Saiyan bonds, you glowing little freak!" he exclaimed in fear. "What are you doing? What's happening?!"

I took one menacing step toward him and let that fear sink into his skull and poison his brain. That was the same fear that Videl had been faced with. A fear that she couldn't escape. As I took another step, the man backed away.

"Gohan, maybe we should-" He cut himself off as he tried to call down more ropes around me, but I moved too quickly and caught them before they even got close to binding me again.

"These silly rope games are not going to work anymore Gero," I spat at him. I let out a loud shout and burned the rope to a crisp, using a large ki attack.

He frantically looked around the room for any help, but other androids or guards were nowhere to be seen. "This is impossible! Where did you get all this energy and strength from? The other Gohan was nowhere near quite like this!"

"Stop comparing me to him!" I hissed. "I am clearly not the test subject that you thought you were receiving. I am not so easily controlled. And I kind of get the impression that your android twins are also tired of your sick acts. You say you want world domination? Well, good luck if you can't even control two little cyborgs and a Super Saiyan."

"I don't see what's so super about what you're saying," he commented.

I nearly fell over out of disbelief. "Is that some sort of joke? Or do you legitimately not understand?"

Gero shrugged and smiled in defeat. "Just trying to lighten the mood...since I'm pretty sure you're going to kill me."

I let myself loosen up a little. My rage from earlier was dying out. My father's face and words echoed through my mind. _What would he want me to do? _I felt guilty for my extremely violent intentions that I had a moment ago.

I looked Gero dead in the eyes. "I don't want to kill you." He didn't seem to understand. "Everyone deserves a second chance. This is something that my dad believed in a lot, and it's something that I admire him for. That's why I'm offering the same choice to you."

"Choice?" he questioned out of disbelief. "Choice?! What choice do I have anyway?! You'll kill me regardless of what you say!"

I shook my head sternly. "No. You don't understand. I'm giving you the option of living so long as you change your heart, or you can die for sticking to your cruel ways. Everyone deserves a chance."

He squinted his eyes. "I don't buy it. You were so violent a minute ago. You're lying! If you're not going to kill me, then I'll just have to kill you. Clearly, your files belong in my failed projects section."

This was ridiculous! I flat-out have him the option to live, and he denied it to my face! If he wanted to die, so be it. I tried it my father's way first, and for that, I'm sure he is proud, but I know what he would do now. Whenever his enemies deny their chance at mercy, it's game over for them.

"It sounds like you've made your choice," I said firmly. "It's time to put an end to all the injustice that you've caused in this world." I vaguely felt like I was saying some of Great Saiyaman's lines.

I took my fighting stance once and for all, preparing myself to end it here. _Finally_. I've taken a stance so many times and haven't even done a thing. But now the time has come where I can put my skills to use once again.

Dr. Gero hastily made the first move, a high kick, aimed for my head, but I dodged and grabbed his leg. I flung him to the floor as if he were nothing. This fight was easy compared to what I'd done in the past. Well, it helped that I remembered the past now too.

As he picked himself off of the floor, he began to put his fingers in his mouth to whistle. I think it may have been a way of communicating with the androids. In any case, I grabbed his wrist and pulled it down. "Oh no, old man. This fight is between you and me. No more hiding behind other androids because I am sick of it."

"Such a bold boy," he said slowly as he then formed ki orbs. "I still think that you would be the perfect soldier had you been fully under my control, with a few extra modifications of course."

"Of course," I agreed, preparing myself for the attack. "Too bad that won't be happening."

He let the energy orbs grow larger and their brightness illuminated the dim room. Without anymore cocky words or pointless banter, he flung them at me, one after another after another. I deflected them left and right, letting them crash into the clear walls, creating cracks and holes. I was careful to deflect them away from the area where Videl lay.

Gero stopped producing energy blasts soon after realizing that it wasn't working. He charged at me and began to challenge me in good ol' hand-to-hand combat. His moves were fairly fast, but I was faster. His punches were forceful, but I could block and dodge them all. Any kicks, elbowings, kneeings, or other maneuvers of his proved futile. Regardless of how he attacked, I was clearly superior.

Halfway through one of his series of kicks, jumps, and lunges, I turned the tables and played more offensively than defensively. I began a series of punches and attacks of my own, most of which collided with his body. _Punch!_ in the face. _Punch!_ in the stomach. _Hit!_ after quickly going behind him, to his back. _Knock!_ on his head, causing him to fall to the ground.

I placed my foot on top of his stomach, applying just the amount of pressure needed to keep him from standing back up again. "Don't you get it? You can't win! You cannot do anything! I've made sloppy mistakes in the past that allowed you to have an advantage, but I am on top now." I let him feel the irony as I used his statement from earlier on himself. "_Literally_."

"Don't do this! Please! I'll change!" he called out in desperation. "Just let me be free, and I won't harm anymore people! I won't use my androids for destruction! I won't try to control the world! Let me live!"

I had given him one chance before, and he refused my offer. I applied a bit more pressure on top of Gero before I could completely crush him. "Goodbye Gero."

But...something kept me from finishing the action. I let my weight off of him and stepped back. I had too much of a conscience. The man was pleading for his life, pleading for a second chance.

He laid on the floor confused as I walked away. "You're really not going to kill me?"

I took a deep breath in and out. "I'm giving you the second chance you begged for. I'm letting you change."

The flabbergasted scientist stood up slowly, one leg after another. "Don't worry. I've changed." Out of nowhere he whistled a high note that hurt my ears and then laughed evilly. "Changed my mind! Now I've got you once and for all!"

A dozen or so androids barged into the room. They had heeded Gero's whistle; his call to draw them all together. Gero laughed and laughed and the androids followed his cackle, though I doubted they knew what was going on. "I can't believe you actually bought that!"

I looked around at the androids, then back to Gero. "These androids are not my problem. If they want to fight me, let them fight me, but they will only fight after their master is not around to give them orders, and they have seen what I'm capable of."

I yelled loudly as I charged one giant ki attack. Gero seemed surprised at how quick I was to charge a deadly blast. "Uh, androids! You should probably-"

"GERO!" I shouted as I let the attack grow larger. "THIS ONE'S FOR YOU! If your androids try to interfere, they should know that they will be destroyed by this blast!"

I let all my emotions fill the large orb growing above my head. Yes. This one was for him. For trying to dominate the world. For torturing human subjects and causing them to become his experiments. For torturing me personally and erasing my memory. But especially for what he did to Videl. I glanced back at her lifeless body. She didn't deserve any of this. She was just sort of my girlfriend...even though, not really.

"Androids!" he yelled loudly. "ATTACK!"

"HYAHHHHH!" I screamed, hurling the large amount of energy at Gero. The blast was a direct hit that was practically unavoidable to begin with. I shielded my face from the blast because I was close enough that it could've hurt me too. A few androids in the vicinity were blown to bits, but what happened to Gero, I could not see.

When the light had dimmed and my attack was over, very few androids remained. Gero himself was nowhere to be seen at first. Until I saw his hand. And his foot. And part of his face. The mad scientist was reduced to chunks of his former self. His reign of terror was no more.

I turned to face the five androids that still remained. "Are you guys still looking for a fight? Or do you wish for freedom? I'm letting you leave. No one is here to control you now."

They backed away slowly before running out the door. I then walked over to where Videl was laying on the ground. She hadn't stirred at all, which worried me. I checked for a pulse. Ever-so-faint, a light tapping of a heartbeat moved against my fingers. I tried to tap her to get her to wake up. Although she was alive, she was clearly in no condition to stay conscious.

Fumbling clumsily through my pocket, I pushed past my school ID and pulled out my last senzu bean. I carefully pressed open her lips and forced her to chew the bean. Due to her natural reflexes, as it fell to the back of her mouth, she swallowed it and its effects began to heal her almost instantaneously.

Videl sprung up and panicked momentarily. I wrapped my arms around her carefully as I hushed her. "Don't worry. Everything is fine now."

"Gohan?" she asked. "What happened?"

"One of Gero's attacks hit you, and you passed out," I explained. "I worried that you were dead, but thankfully, you were only unconscious. I gave you my last senzu bean."

She nodded along slowly before asking another question. "So...what happened to Gero?"

I pointed over to where a few of his remains laid. "I blew him up. He's gone. He's dead. This timeline is no longer threatened by his influence."

I stood up and walked over to a remote that was lying on the ground. It was the remote that Dr. Gero had dropped when he turned off the twins and dodged their last attack. Bending over, I picked it up and examined it carefully as Videl came over to see what I was doing.

Quickly, I glanced at the two androids before pressing the button for their reactivation. They slowly began to wake up. The two looked around the room in a frantic mess with hostile expressions on their faces.

"Where's Gero?" 17 asked me.

Gesturing back to the little bit of him that was left, I said, "There. I killed him after he shut you guys off."

"You did?!" 18 asked incredulously. "I'm glad that we ended up being on the same side. I would hate to have fought you if that's what you did to him..."

Videl crossed her arms uncomfortably. "Are you guys still on our side? What are you going to do now?"

The androids shrugged, and I feared that they would go out of control and try to start blowing things up for the heck of it. I offered a civil suggestion. "Maybe you can get out into the world and just enjoy life for what it is? I mean, Gero won't be bossing you around and making you do any more horrible tasks so..."

18 took a step forward in my direction. "If you're worried about us going on some sort of destructive rampage, don't be. We've decided that we're not cold-blooded killers who cause chaos just for kicks and giggles. Maybe at one point we were but..."

"After what went down with Gero, I don't want to be a part of any of that again," 17 finished. He looked over at Videl as if he still hadn't quite given up on winning her heart.

"What do we do now, Gohan?" Videl asked anxiously. "Are you going to go back to your timeline?"

I nodded, feeling guilty for leaving the poor girl behind. "Soon. But first, I want to finish this job once and for all." I looked over at the androids, who seemed a little nervous at my statement. "Would you guys care to join us in destroying Gero's stuff?"

"Would we?!" Android 17 cheered.

The four of us, an awkward quartet, exited the small holding cell together as the twins led us to various offices of Gero's. Before destroying anything in the first office, I made a PSA on an intercom. "Everyone who is in this building should be aware of the fact that Dr. Gero is now dead. I suggest that you all leave and live peacefully elsewhere because these offices are about to be destroyed."

I clicked the off button and examined the room quickly, making sure we wouldn't destroy anything of too much importance. 18 briefly picked up some documents about other test subjects, but she got mad and slammed them down on a table with a loud shout. "Burn it all! Blow it up!"

_FWOOSH! _Everything went ablaze with blast after blast. We jumped from office to office, inspecting the area, then destroying it all. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy it. In the last area, Dr. Gero's main laboratory, I found the device that allowed for me to travel across universes. This I held on to as we blew the rest of the lab up.

We casually strolled outside all together as if nothing were wrong and we didn't completely decimate the inside of that building. I grasped the small device used for timeline traveling tightly in my hand. Videl looked at me speedily and the two androids kept their distance as we said our goodbyes.

"I was so worried about this, you know," she said quietly. "As I felt myself grow more and more attached to you, I knew this would be difficult. I hardly know you, yet I feel-"

I sighed and held up a hand to silence her words. "I know. We've been over this. It'll be okay, I promise." I placed my hand on her cheek. "I don't want to be what keeps you from finding someone else though." The words were hard to say because she was still my girlfriend after all, just in an alternate universe.

Surprisingly enough, the tough and stubborn girl that I knew and loved allowed a few tears to escape and roll down her cheeks. "But I really like you, Gohan. I wish I could've gotten to know you even better because I think that we..." She trailed off. "I didn't expect it to be _this_ difficult."

I tugged on the ugly metal bracelet that had helped me to find my lost memories and slid it off of my wrist and placed it on hers. "There. Something to remind you of me. But you _are_ going to move on, you know."

"I know," she said dejectedly. "All the time I spent with you was so stressful, but it was also thrilling and fun and unbelievable and dangerous. I'm going to miss both you and this wild adventure."

"If you're looking for more wild adventures and danger, then maybe you should give 17 a chance after all," I joked with a small laugh. It was weird. I shouldn't be telling my girlfriend to give other guys a chance!

She snorted as she looked back at the android-cyborg. "Yeah right. Although, his sister seems to be interested in you too. Are you going to say anything to her?"

I nodded and gestured for the two to join me and Videl. They walked over and I began to speak. "17 and 18, I'm going to be leaving now. I trust that you will not disrupt the peace in this world? In my world, although the two of you started out rough, you actually ended up being not too bad."

"What are we like in your world?" 18 asked with curiosity.

I wasn't sure how to explain this to her without being too awkward. "Different, yet somewhat similar. You, 18, eventually get married to one of my good friends named Krillin. You guys even have a kid. As for you 17, I don't really know much. I think you stay out of trouble, and that's the important thing. Rumor has it that you're a park ranger."

18 seemed surprised to hear this about herself. "Krillin...?"

I nodded quickly. "I'm sure he exists in this timeline too. I don't know what he's like here, but in my universe he's...an interesting fellow. If you get the chance, _definitely_ get to know him better."

I looked over at 17. I didn't exactly want to give him permission to date my girlfriend. I just smiled and said, "I hope you find someone too, 17."

The nice thing was, without even pestering me about Videl or saying anything to Videl herself, he said thanks. Then a large grin filled his face as he shouted loudly, "I'm a park ranger! Whoo hoo! And you're just a mom, 18!"

His sister rolled her eyes, and we all laughed. The two initially seemed a little bit surprised at my kind attitude toward them because they had been sent out to capture us earlier, but they seemed to accept my kindness graciously.

I held out the device. "Well, this is goodbye." I narrowed my eyes at the several buttons and the little screen that had all managed to fit onto such a small thing. "Are you two familiar with Dr. Gero's technology."

"We _are_ Dr. Gero's technology," 17 said, hoping to get another laugh from us. He only got an eye roll from his sister.

She sighed. "What he means is, yes we are somewhat familiar with this kind of stuff."

"Then do you guys know how to operate this thing?" I asked, pointing to the device.

18 snatched it out of my hand and began to examine it. "Well, um, you first need to power it on..." Her fingers hovered over several deferent buttons as she tried to figure which one turned on the power. She tapped a green one, which miraculously was the power switch.

"So now what do you do?" Videl asked slowly.

The blonde android narrowed her eyes at the device and answered Videl as she began to examine it some more. "I'm trying to figure that out..." She looked at all the buttons before exclaiming, "I got it!"

17 looked closer at what his sister was doing. "Right now it says that Dimension 412168 is the destination if you look at the screen."

My face lit up, and Videl's fell. We both knew I would be leaving now. Although I didn't want to just leave her here alone, it was time for me to return home to _my_ Videl and the rest of my friends and family. "I bet it's still set to my universe from when Dr. Gero last went there."

18 pressed another button and a line that resembled a laser beam shot out of the device. She dropped it out of surprise, and the beam shot high into the sky. A swirling portal opened above us, exactly like the one that Gero used to travel to my world.

I looked around at the people around me and gave one last smile goodbye. "Goodbye everybody. Now that the portal's opened, I'm officially leaving. Android 17 and 18, don't get into too much trouble. And Videl...keep that device in case anything ever happens again and you need my assistance. I'll...see you in my world."

_Those words sound familiar... _I recalled my failed attempts from earlier to return to my universe. _But this is for real._

I flew up toward the portal as everyone on the ground called out, "Goodbye!" I waved down to them, surprised that they all waved back, even the androids. I flew closer and closer and thought about how the twin androids in this world didn't seem too bad after all. I took a deep breath in and a deep breath out before entering the portal home.

My time in this universe was over.

**_(At the Red Ribbon Army Complex...)_**

No one stirred. Nothing happened. Only silence reverberated throughout the building. Although the building itself was still in tact, all of the offices and important rooms were destroyed. The few people and androids who were employed evacuated with odd happiness warming their insides. Gero's reign of terror was finally over. Nobody really liked him all that much.

Supposedly the city had been protected by the androids, but it was now that the human-like machines didn't have to follow Dr. Gero's harsh orders, that it was truly at peace. Local law enforcement could pick up from where they had left off, which was before the mad scientist had taken everything over. Everything would finally return to its relatively normal state.

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**Kind of bittersweet in my opinion. Chapter 10 (AKA the epilogue) will be out next week and is _very_ short. It will also be the last update for this story! Thanks for reading guys! And thanks for all the support you've shown this story!**

**-TOW**

**P.S. I put up a poll asking about what story I should write next. Check it out please!**


	10. Chapter 10: An Epilogue of Sorts

**The final update for this story! It's pretty short. Thanks for reading everybody! :D I've seriously considered adding another ending/chapter to this story, but I have to write it first! Give it two weeks, and we'll see if I have it done or not! (Might even do it as a separate oneshot...? I'll let you guys know!)**

**Also, Wednesday snuck up on me again, so I'll do all my replying to you guys later! Sorry!**

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Chapter 10: An Epilogue of Sorts

It was bright and sunny outside, which caused me to be temporarily blind after coming out of the dark void that led me to my normal timeline. It was almost as if someone had used Tien's Solar Flare. But aside from the brightness of the beautiful day, I could sense darkness coming from somewhere on the ground below me...

I opened my eyes as I lowered myself to the ground. I was at Capsule Corporation, where the portal had opened when Gero used it earlier. The device to close the portal was not in my possession anymore, but I trusted that Videl would close it from the other side. As if on cue, I looked back to see the swirling portal fade to nothing.

"GOHAN!" an awfully familiar voice shouted as I landed on the ground. This was the person who was emanating the darkness that I had sensed a moment ago. "YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE MISTER!"

There was no escaping the darkness of a mother's rage.

"Mom!" I said, throwing my arms around her in a big hug, hoping to soften her heart. "It's so good to see you again!"

"WHAT THE HECK DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?!" she yelled, rejecting my hug.

I stapped away to rub the back of my neck and give my best smile. "Um, saving the day...?"

She shook her head and began to sob, finally throwing her arms around me and showing all that motherly love. "I was so worried about you! I know you think you're all grown up now, but you're still in high school!"

"No, Mom," I said. "I graduated, remember? It's summertime..."

"Well, graduated or not, you're still my baby, and I don't want to lose you!" She ruffled my hair a little. "You're so much like your father, always doing your best to save the day and nearly give me a heart attack!"

I finally pulled out of her hug. "I'm sorry, but I knew that if I had told you, you wouldn't have let me go."

"You're darn right I wouldn't have let you go!" she snapped quickly. "You need to quit all this hero business and finish your education. You still have college to go to and a job to get and marriage perhaps...?"

My cheeks felt a little rosy as I thought about the possibility of marrying Videl. "There's still some time to think about all those things. But if it'll make you happy, then I'll-"

Bulma rushed outside, interrupting the conversation that I was having with my mother. "Is everything okay? I heard you yelling something, Chi-Chi and I thought-" She stopped short as she realized that I had returned. "You made it back alive!" She turned and yelled in the direction of the door. "GUYS! GOHAN'S BACK!"

A crowd of people suddenly rushed outside. Goten, Vegeta, Trunks, Yamcha, Krillin, 18, Marron, my dad...everybody! They were all at the Briefs' house waiting for my return. But one person dashed over to me faster than anyone else though.

"Gohan!" she called out angrily. "You had us all worried sick! What if you had died?! We would've never known!" Her frustration faded away as she began to sob in my arms.

I stroked her short black hair and smiled softly. "Shh... It's okay, Videl. I'm fine! I'm sorry that I couldn't tell any of you, but this was something that I needed to do alone."

She pulled out of my embrace and wiped her tears. "That doesn't mean you can't at least warn me! None of us had any idea where you disappeared to...except for Bulma. Once we all went to Capsule Corp, Bulma told us what happened."

"And then Mom stayed outside the entire time waiting for you to come back!" Goten said, laughing.

I gave a small laugh of my own. "That doesn't surprise me. But you guys will not believe what happened or who I saw!"

"Dr. Gero?" Krillin asked.

I nodded quickly. "I guess Bulma already told you that much, but it was so strange!" I looked at my girlfriend. "You were there, Videl." My gaze then rolled over to Krillin's wife. "And so were you, 18. In that universe there were lots of similarities, but lots of differences too."

"Tell us everything that happened," Videl demanded. "From the beginning to the end!"

"It's a long story," I warned everyone.

My dad stepped forward and said the first thing since I returned. "Don't worry, Gohan. Everyone here is interested in what happened. I'm proud of you, son."

Chi-Chi glared at him momentarily. "Don't say things like that! It'll encourage him to run off more often."

"Tell the story, Gohan!" Goten said, jumping up and down. "I wanna hear it!"

I smiled and told the story of my adventures in that other universe. In the middle of it, we all walked inside the Briefs' house. Everyone really did seem to want to hear what I had to say. Even Vegeta, who actually admitted to me after I was done telling the story that he appreciated the fact that I acknowledged my Saiyan heritage.

After dining with the Briefs, it was time for us to all go our separate ways again. Instead of going straight home with the rest of my family, I told them that I was going to fly with Videl to her house real quick. We arrived relatively soon and landed on top of the Satans' roof.

I stared directly into her eyes, feeling happy that I had finally made it back to where I truly belonged. _With her. _"I'm so sorry that I had to leave you."

"It's okay," she said, smiling. "I understand now, but I was scared when you were suddenly missing. But I guess you were only gone for a few days, not weeks upon weeks upon weeks or anything. You know that you missed a date that I was looking forward to, right?"

My eyes widened quickly and I looked away. _Shoot! _I had forgotten about that... "I...uh, got so caught up in trying to catch Dr. Gero, I forgot all about our date for that night after I followed him through the portal. What can I do to make it up to you?"

She smiled, and I admired her beauty in the sunset lighting. "This is perfect. Right here."

"What about dinner?" I asked. "And the movie?"

She shrugged and rolled her eyes. "I guess if you want, we can plan it for another time. The main reason I was looking forward to the date though was because I knew I'd be spending time with you. I really missed being with you while you were gone."

"I would say that I missed you to, but I ended up finding you again," I said with a laugh. My smiled faded and I looked at her. "But it isn't the same, is it? Tell you what, if this sort of crazy thing ever happens again, I'll bring you with me. Would you like that?"

"I would love that!"

A smile filled my face, and I looked away into the distance. She looked at the sunset with me and grabbed my hand. She was certainly a lot more romantic than I was. Still, I knew a romantic moment when one was there. I did something that I had wanted to do immediately as I returned but was too embarrassed to do it in front of everyone.

As I drew her into a kiss, any and all distance that had separated us because of the time I was gone began to blur away. I really liked Videl. No, I _loved_ her. I pulled out of the kiss and smiled widely for a few moments.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

I guess I should conclude this adventure with some cheesy quote like, "True love can't ever be lost for good," or something along those lines. It's true though. No mad scientist who erased my memories could ever make me forget Videl. She was what I could vaguely remember, even when I didn't even know my own name. I had finally found my memories and the place that I belonged to.

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**Veeeeerrrrryyyyy short, but it didn't belong with the last chapter. ****Thanks for reading! I would love to hear your feedback! And be on the lookout for a second ending or oneshot that follows this story! I love you all more than you'll ever know!**

**-TOW**

**P.S. If you haven't already, please vote for what story idea interests you guys the most. There are three options, and I'd love to hear your input! Please check it out! :D**


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